Optic fibre network reaches 83,000 panchayats: DoT Secy

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, October 26

The BharatNet project, which aims to deploy high-speed optical fibre cables across the rural areas of the country, has now reached 83,000 gram panchayats, said Aruna Sundararajan, Secretary, Department of Telecommunications (DoT), here today.

Speaking at ‘i-Bharat 2017’ on the theme ICT Elucidations for Unserved and Unsolved, she said by December this year the first phase of BharatNet will be completed.

This would provide 1,00,000 gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground optic fibre cable lines. The DoT is aggressively monitoring the prestigious BharatNet initiative that aims to provide internet connectivity to 2.5 lakh gram panchayats or village blocks by March 2019.

The entire project, when completed, is expected to give a fillip to reaching out e-commerce services, including e-governance, education and television services to the far-flung areas of the country.

The DoT Secretary said the laying of optic fibre cables was a national imperative and the government, industry and chambers of commerce needed to work in coalition to achieve the objective of doubling the telecom footprint in the country by 2020.

Quoting from internet guru Mary Meeker’s 2017 report released in May this year, she said there were over 355 million monthly active internet users in India and nearly 109 million smartphones were shipped in 2016. Nearly 46% of internet users in India consume content in local languages.