Through the New Telecom Policy 1999, government for the first time brought policy focus to affordable internet in rural and remote areas. The policy stated that resources for meeting these objectives would be raised through a 'universal access...
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September, 2018
The policy envisaged funding the following rural initiatives through USOF- (i) BharatNet – Providing 1 Gbps to Gram Panchayats upgradeable to 10 Gbps (ii) GramNet – Connecting all key rural development institutions with 10 Mbps upgradeable to 100 Mbps (iii) JanWiFi – Establishing 2 million Wi-Fi Hotspots in rural areas
August, 2018
The Standing Committee on IT reviewed the progress of BharatNet noting implementation issues in Phase-I including slow progress in NE states, recommended focus on last-mile connectivity, sharing of best practices under the state-led model, establishment of a single window clearance system to deal with RoW issues, etc.
March, 2015
A Committee on National Optical Fiber Network was constituted by the government on 14th January, 2015, to review the strategy and approach towards speedy implementation of the NOFN project, which was falling far behind the planned schedule during the period of 2011-14. The Committee suggested renaming the project as BharatNet and made several recommendations with regard to (a) estimating bandwidth and sizing infrastructure (b) architecture, planning and technology choice (c) implementation strategy (d) project cost and timelines (e) migration from NOFN to BharatNet (f) empowering BBNL.
June, 2012
The strategy outlined for rural inclusivity aimed among other things to recognise ‘Right to Broadband’ as a basic necessity like health and education’ to incorporate enabling provisions in the regulatory framework so that existing infrastructure such as cable networks could be optimally utilised for extending broadband services to rural areas; to promote synergies between broadband rollout and other rural government programs like e-Panchayat, MNREGA, etc.
October, 2011
The government envisaged bringing multiple e-governance services to rural households and providing them the opportunity to avail various services from access providers like mobile operators, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Cable TV operators and content providers. The project is being implemented by Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) under various models (state-led, CPSU-led and private-led) under three phases with the following targeted milestones (a) Phase 1: to cover 1000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) (b) Phase II: to cover balance GPs using optical mix of underground/aerial OFC, radio and satellite (c) Phase III: Coverage of all villages and upgradation of the network with ring topology to be used between districts and blocks and blocks and GPs.
January, 2009
This scheme envisaged BSNL providing 8,88,832 wire-line broadband connections to individual users and government institutions and would set up 28,672 kiosks over a period of 6 years.
March, 1999
This contained a section on Universal Service Obligation (USO) under which the government sought to achieve the objectives of- providing voice and low speed data service to 2.9 lakh uncovered villages by 2002, internet access to all district headquarters by 2000 and achieve telephone on demand in urban and rural areas by 2002.
