Twitter
Advertisement

RailTel to host communication of future

Taking a step toward the future RailTel Corporation of India, a public sector unit under the Ministry of Railways, launched its first network operation centre.

Latest News
article-main
FacebookTwitterWhatsappLinkedin

Railway ministry sets up corporation which will allow telecom connectivity even in remote areas in India

The highly competitive broadband multimedia market has a new entrant, the Indian Railways. Taking a step toward the future RailTel Corporation of India, a public sector unit under the Ministry of Railways, launched its first network operation centre (NOC) at Mahalaxmi to facilitate the growth of telecom in remote and rural parts of the country.

The NOC in Mumbai will monitor the status of every aspect of the Optical Fibre Communication (OFC) cable circuit, including power supply.

The corporation has also set up three other NOCs — New Delhi, Secunderabad and Kolkata — to be able to manage the network efficiently.

To build a nation-wide network, and add all the top telecom players to its customer list, railway officials say they will need professionally-managed NOC’s.

“RailTel has exclusive right of way to establish an OFC network along the Railways’ Route Kilometre (RKM) networks. Till date, 30,000RKM of optical fibre communication networks have been laid across India and there are plans to increase it to 43,000RKM by the end of 2008,” said KK Bajpayee, managing director of RailTel.

He said, “We are also targeting multi-location corporate houses and industries, which can use our network and connect their establishments across the country. For example, a customer whose ships dock at different ports will be able to lease a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which connects the port to his head office in Mumbai every quarter, once RailTel comes up.”

Other customers the corporation will target are media houses as well as trading, production, textile and chemical industry companies.

As of now, RailTel has substantially improved the Railways’ existing communication system and has set up a large number of services like RailNet through its 30,000RKM OFC network, which connects more than 2,800 stations.

In a bid to improve information to rail commuters by providing Internet connectivity on the move, RailTel is rolling out Wi-Fi services and cyber cafés at all railway stations.

This not all. RailTel will also help improve the capacity of mobile networks in congested areas like Mumbai and other metros. It will help operators add capacity sites on top of the stations. Bajpayee said that this would help RailTel to generate revenue, and more crucially, help ease the network capacity which is crucial to commuters during peak hours and emergencies when the networks get jammed.

Find your daily dose of news & explainers in your WhatsApp. Stay updated, Stay informed-  Follow DNA on WhatsApp.
    Advertisement

    Live tv

    Advertisement
    Advertisement