India proposes nationwide fibre network

India’s Telecom Commission proposal to create a US$4.5 billion National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) has been approved by the Department of Telecom (DoT), announced Shri Kapil Sibal, Minister of Communication and Information Technology. This NOFN will extend the country’s existing fibre optic network from the district level to the village level, giving the country of 1.2 billion people services like e-education, e-health, e-banking and also reduce migration of rural population to urban areas, said Sibal.
“In economic terms, the benefits from the scheme are expected through additional employment, e-education, e-health, e-agriculture etc. and reduction in migration of rural population to urban areas,” Sibal said. “The proposed NOFN will enable effective and faster implementation of various mission mode e-governance projects amounting to approximately 500 billion Indian rupee (US$11.25 billion) initiated by Department of Information Technology as well as delivery of a whole range of electronic services in the above areas by the private sector to citizen in rural areas.” The US$4.5 billion cost will be funded by he Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Sibal also suggested that the private sector will contribute similar investments to complement the infrastructure and to provide services to users.

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