Friday, December 2, 2011

National Optical Fibre Network for Broadband Connectivity to Panchayats

Shri Milind Deora, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology informed Rajya Sabha today in a written reply that government has approved creation of National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) for providing broadband connectivity of all panchayats. The plan is to extend the existing optical fibre network initially upto panchayats by utilizing the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) and creating an institutional mechanism for management and operation of the NOFN for ensuring non discriminatory access to all service providers.

The Minister further informed the Members that National Informatics Centre ( NIC) has been assigned a project by DOT/USOF for carrying out the Geo Information System (GIS) mapping of the existing OFC network of the various telecom operators such BSNL, Rail Tel, Power Grid, etc and the work is in progress. The mapping of the existing OFC will enable to calculate the incremental length of the cable required for connecting all the 2.5 lakh panchayats with OFC. The cost of initial phase of the NOFN scheme is likely to be in the region of Rs. 20,000 crores, Shri Deora said.

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