Every Village in India will be Connected with Optical Fibre Cable in Next 1,000 Days - PM Modi

Each village to be connected with optical fibre cable (OFC) connectivity in next 1000 days: PM Shri Narendra Modi

Lakshadweep also to be connected with undersea optical fibre cable in 1,000 days

“In the coming 1000 days, every village in the country will be connected with optical fibre cable,” Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in his address on the occasion of 74th Independence Day earlier today. Shri Modi mentioned that before 2014, only 5 dozen panchayats in the country were connected with optical fiber cable.

In the last five years, nearly 1.5 lakh gram panchayats in the country have been connected with optical fiber cable. He further added that Participation of rural India and villages in Digital India is very important for balanced development of India. To enable this we will rapidly expand our optical fibre network. This will reach all the 6 lakh villages within 1,000 days.

Expressing his gratitude to the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi for this important announcement, Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Minister for Electronics & IT and Communications tweeted, “Today you have entrusted Department of Telecommunications with the responsibility to connect all the villages of India by optical fibre Internet in 1000 days. It's a game changer for Digital India. With your inspiration we will do it.”

During the 74th Independence Day speech PM also announced that in the next 1000 days, Lakshadweep will be connected with submarine optical fiber cable. "We have around 1,300 islands. Keeping in mind their geographical location and their significance in the development of the nation, work to begin new projects in some of these islands is underway. We have chosen some islands for rapid development.

Recently, we connected Andaman and Nicobar Islands with an undersea cable for a better internet. Next, we will connect Lakshadweep," he said while delivering his Independence Day speech from the iconic Red Fort. Earlier this week PM Modi inaugurated the first-ever undersea optic fiber link between Chennai and Andaman and Nicobar to ensure high-speed broadband connectivity for the Union Territory (UT) at par with services in the cities like Delhi and Chennai.

While commenting on announcement for high speed Internet services in Lakshadweep Islands, Shri Prasad said in a tweet that today Prime Minister set a target of 1000 days to provide submarine optical fibre connectivity to these islands. Like linking Andaman & Nicobar islands Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications will fast track this as well.

OFC connectivity to the villages and submarine OFC to the Lakshadeep islands will help the people in rural areas/villages and those in Lakshadweep islands in getting cheaper & better connectivity and all the benefits of Digital India, especially in improving online education, tele-medicine, banking system, online trading, boosting tourism and skill development etc.

Wi-Fi HotSpots In Rural Gram Panchayats Soon

Internet has now become an indispensable part of our lives. We depend on it 24x7 for various things in our day to day lives. The Government of India is taking various steps in order to spread the wonders of Internet in each and every part of the country. Taking a step in this direction, Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), which is a special purpose vehicle set up by the central government for the establishment, operations and management of National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN), has started its work on establishing Wi-Fi hotspots in grama panchayats.

According to Aruna Sundararajan, Chairman and MD, BBNL, this project of establishing Wi-Fi hotspots in grama panchayats will be achieved as soon as the project, which has a goal of establishing a network of high speed broadband internet in 2.5 lakh grama panchayats, comes into existence.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, commissioned India’s first high speed rural broadband network under the NOFN project in Idukki district of Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. The official inauguration of the same took place in Technopark on Monday.

According to Aruna, once the network is established, it would work as a neutral non-discriminatory infrastructure that can be utilized equally by private service providers, including the small scale service providers like cable operators to provide internet services to people. She also added, through this project, the central government is trying to achieve an internet revolution in the country.

The network, when established, will enable the easy delivery of services like payments, local planning, monitoring and management under government schemes at panchayats level possible.

India's NOFN project is being modeled after Australia’s NBN project. Australia is expected to finish the project by 2020, while India’s NOFN might defeat it in the race and finish earlier than NBN.

NOFN will be extended to cover 50,000 grama panchayats in its first phase. The 2,00,000 remaining grama panchayats will be covered in a phased manner by next year. The first phase of the NOFN project is being implemented by three Public Sector Units namely- Railtel, BSNL and PGCIL.

Wi-Fi HotSpots In Rural Gram Panchayats Soon

Internet has now become an indispensable part of our lives. We depend on it 24x7 for various things in our day to day lives. The Government of India is taking various steps in order to spread the wonders of Internet in each and every part of the country. Taking a step in this direction, Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), which is a special purpose vehicle set up by the central government for the establishment, operations and management of National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN), has started its work on establishing Wi-Fi hotspots in grama panchayats.

According to Aruna Sundararajan, Chairman and MD, BBNL, this project of establishing Wi-Fi hotspots in grama panchayats will be achieved as soon as the project, which has a goal of establishing a network of high speed broadband internet in 2.5 lakh grama panchayats, comes into existence.

Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Union Minister for Communication and Information Technology, commissioned India’s first high speed rural broadband network under the NOFN project in Idukki district of Thiruvananthapuram on Monday. The official inauguration of the same took place in Technopark on Monday.

According to Aruna, once the network is established, it would work as a neutral non-discriminatory infrastructure that can be utilized equally by private service providers, including the small scale service providers like cable operators to provide internet services to people. She also added, through this project, the central government is trying to achieve an internet revolution in the country.

The network, when established, will enable the easy delivery of services like payments, local planning, monitoring and management under government schemes at panchayats level possible.

India's NOFN project is being modeled after Australia’s NBN project. Australia is expected to finish the project by 2020, while India’s NOFN might defeat it in the race and finish earlier than NBN.

NOFN will be extended to cover 50,000 grama panchayats in its first phase. The 2,00,000 remaining grama panchayats will be covered in a phased manner by next year. The first phase of the NOFN project is being implemented by three Public Sector Units namely- Railtel, BSNL and PGCIL.