Bharat Net

Why in news?

• Recently, the Union Cabinet approved a Viability Gap Funding support of up to Rs. 19,041 crore for the implementation of the BharatNet project through Public-Private Partnership model.

About Bharat Net:

• BharatNet is a project of national importance to establish, a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis.
• It aims to provide on demand, affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, to realise the vision of Digital India, in partnership with States and the private sector.
• The entire project is being funded by Universal service Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country.
• The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.
• It will be rolled out with the additional funding by state governments to connect all gram panchayats in India.

Phases:

• The project is a Centre-State collaborative project, with the States contributing free Rights of Way for establishing the Optical Fibre Network.
• The three-phase implementation of the BharatNet project is as follows:
  • The first phase envisages providing one lakh gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground optic fibre cable (OFC) lines.
  • The second phase will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 gram panchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fiber, fiber over power lines, radio and satellite media.
  • In the third phase, state-of-the-art, future-proof network, including fiber between districts and blocks, with ring topology to provide redundancy would be created.
• The last mile connectivity to citizens was proposed to be provided creating Wi-Fi hotspots in gram panchayats.

Prelims Question

Consider the following statements regarding Bharat Net:
1.It is funded by Asian Development Bank loans.
2.It aims to provide broadband connectivity to all gram panchayats of India.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to the Prelims Question