Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Tuesday, Aug 30, 2005
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Tuesday, Aug 30, 2005 |
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Info-Tech
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Broadband `AP to become No 1 in broadband connectivity' Our Bureau
Hyderabad , Aug. 29 IN barely two months, residents in the Rangareddy district of Andhra Pradesh could get a triple-play broadband connection for barely Rs 100 a month, thanks to the State broadband project now underway. All the 12 municipalities, 37 mandals, 705 gram panchayats and 1,200 revenue villages in Rangareddy district will be linked up via optical fibre cables with broadband connectivity. The Chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Mr Pradeep Baijal, visited Torruru mandal on Monday and said Andhra Pradesh was poised to be numero uno in broadband connectivity. The broadband project being implemented by Aksh Opti Fibre, seeks to offer speeds of 10 gigabytes per second (gbps) up to district headquarters, one gbps up to 1,127 mandal headquarters and 100 mbps up to the village level. The ABL consortium includes INcable Network (Andhra) Ltd, Spectranet Ltd and Nuziveedu Seeds Ltd. The Rs 394-crore Aksh Broadband Project envisages laying of one lakh km of OFC covering 2.75 lakh square kilometres, connecting 22,000 villages including 40,000 Government offices, apart from every other users. This project will enable delivery of citizen services thru eSeva centres and Rajiv Internet Village Kiosks. Hyderabad and every district headquarters will be connected in 28 weeks, under phase one project, offering first 3-in-one communication-cable television, VoIP (voice over Internet protocol) and Internet through ultra-thin OFCs. The second phase will cover all mandals in 45 weeks and in phase three, every village will be linked by OFC. Answering queries, Mr Baijal said India's strength was in its numbers and that alone would bring down communication costs. With regard to making India on a local call, Mr Baijal said: "It is a question of time. Phone rates have come down drastically because of the number of people making calls. There was a time when calling Kashmir would cost Rs 24 a minute, but now it is less than Rs 3. Likewise, when mobile phones were introduced, outgoing rates were Rs 30 a minute, whereas it costs an average of Re 1 a minute now. Telecom has always been influenced by numbers." Asked about the controversy over CDMA service providers giving subscribers mobility in the name of providing fixed wireless handsets, he said the GSM operators had lodged a complaint with TRAI against CDMA service providers.
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