Bharat turns new telco battleground

The second phase of BharatNet, the government's ambitious programme to connect rural India via high speed broadband, with an outlay of Rs 31,000 crore kicked off on Monday.

The target is to connect 150,000 gram panchayats by March 2019. The first phase to connect 100,000 gram panchayats is already underway, and after much delays will be completed by the end of this year.

Private telecom players including Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular have shown interest in offering the last-mile connectivity.

RJio has paid a subscription fee of Rs 13 crore, Airtel Rs 5 crore, Vodafone Rs 11 lakh while Idea has paid Rs 5 lakh for buying bandwidth.

RJio paid the highest advance subscription fee of Rs 13 crore to provide broadband services at 30,000 village panchayats, Bharti Airtel will cover 30,500 village panchayats while Vodafone and Idea would offer services in 2,000 and 1,000 villages, respectively.

It is learnt that Airtel has already set up 4G BTSs (base tower stations) in Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, and is providing high speed 4G mobile broadband services to people through BharatNet.

Telecom minister Manoj Sinha, law and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, human resource development minister Prakash Javadekar and Bihar deputy chief minister Sushil Kumar Modi announced commencement of the second phase in an event in the national capital.

Sinha said the government has slashed bandwidth price under the BharatNet project 75%, which will help telecom operators provide services at affordable rates. The first phase of BharatNet will be completed by the end of the year.

"Broadband services have already started in more than 48,000 villages and over 75,000 villages are ready for the services," Sinha said.

The project was earlier called the National Optical Fibre Network and was approved by the previous government in October 2011. However, only a few hundred kilometre, out of 3 lakh kilometre of optical fibre, were laid across the country. The current government approved changes in the project to expedite the rollout and renamed it as BharatNet.

The government expects to complete the entire BharatNet project, entailing an investment of Rs 42,000 crore in both the phases, by March 2019.

Bharat Broadband Network is the executing agency for the BharatNet project along with three PSUs. Memorandum of understandings were also signed between the DoT and seven states, including Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana, Jharkhand and Gujarat. These states have come up with their own model for implementing BharatNet.

Around Rs 4.5 lakh crore value can be added to the national gross domestic product on completion of BharatNet Phase II as a study has suggested that every 10% usage of internet in India drives up GDP 3.3%, according to senior officials.

BSNL will roll out optical fibre in yet to be covered locations of eight states – Assam, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Sikkim – which were not covered under the first phase of BharatNet. Power Grid Corporation of India has been awarded contract for three states – Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Odisha.

The government will also provide Rs 3,600 crore to telecom operators for rolling out wi-fi in villages. Under BharatNet Phase I, the government has set up 15,000 wi-fi hotspots, of which around 11,000 are in rural areas and the rest in semi-rural areas.

HINTERLAND CALLING

• RJio has paid a subscription fee of Rs 13 crore, Airtel Rs 5 crore, Vodafone Rs 11 lakh while Idea has paid Rs 5 lakh for buying bandwidth
   
• Bharti Airtel will cover 30,500 village panchayats while Vodafone and Idea would offer services in 2,000 and 1,000 villages, respectively