The government made a remarkable statement where broadband accessibility will be available to all villages by 2022. With the launch of the ambitious National Broadband Mission this initiative is taking shape, this endeavour has entailed stakeholder investment of Rs 7 lakh crore in the next three to four years.
This vocation is to bring enormous development across the country. The objective of this project is to facilitate every village of the nation with universal and equitable access to broadband services. It is one of the biggest missions that the government has taken in the recent past. Another striking factor is this project involves the utilization of an incremental 30 lakh route km of optical fiber cable and increasing
tower density from 0.42 to 1 tower per thousand populations by 2024.
Union Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad introduced the mission that significantly aims improving the quality of mobile and internet services in the country. "By 2022, we will take broadband to all the villages of India. The number of towers in the country, which is about 5.65 lakh, will be increased to 10 lakh" avers Prasad.
Through this mission the government intends to increase fiberisation of towers to 70 per cent from 30 per cent at present. It has the potentiality to enable strengthening of technological infrastructure for education, health, entrepreneurship and development. "We will also take the speeds up to 50 Mbps in a phased manner," he mentions.
The mission will also bring in stakeholder investment of $100 billion (Rs 7 lakh crore) including Rs 70,000 crore from Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) in the coming years. It aims to enable enormous growth of digital communications infrastructure, bridge the digital divide, facilitate digital empowerment and inclusion, and provide affordable and universal access of broadband to all. It will lay emphasis on universality, affordability and quality of services. The Centre will work with the states and UTs for having consistent policies pertaining to expansion of digital infrastructure, including for Right of Way (RoW) approvals required for laying of optical fibre cable. Last but not the least, it will also strive for the creation of a digital fibre map of the communications network and infrastructure,including optical fibre cables and towers across the country.
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