National Broadband plan to connect 160m homes

NEW DELHI: Telecom minister Kapil Sibal said that the National Broadband plan will connect 160 million Indian households with high-speed Internet connections by 2014.

"The framework for the National Broadband Plan (NBP) will be finalised by the end of this fiscal (March 31)," minister for communications and information technology Kapil Sibal. On Wednesday, Sibal met industry body representatives to finalise the national broadband plan and evolve a strategy to roll out optical fibre in a roundtable conference.

Kapil Sibal consulted key stakeholders including telecom regulator Trai, industry chambers, mobile, internet, cable and PCO service providers and their associations apart from Rail-Tel , Power Grid Corporation and officials from information and broadcasting ministry on telecomrelated policy issues.

Sibal said the broadband plan would focus on framing a policy that balances consumer affordability and service provider's economic sustainability . Therefore, additional optic fibre would have to be laid along with leveraging existing wireless infrastructure.

Earlier this month, Sibal announced a 100-day agenda for taking concrete steps towards finalisation of the broadband plan. As per the plan, optical fibre network will be treated as a national resource and will be equally available to concerned stakeholders for providing broadband services.

The government aims at inclusive growth through broadband as education, medical treatment and entertainment related applications would be extensively used, besides enabling e-governance and citizen-centric services particularly in the rural areas.Sibal said that optic fibre network must be used optimally and the government needs a plan to take the network into the rural heartland.

"The minister has discussed various issues related to NBP... This is in line with the 100-day agenda which Kapil Sibal had announced," COAI director-General Rajan S Mathew said.
Last year, telecom authority Trai had recommended setting up a national broadband network to achieve 160 million connections by 2014.

(With inputs from agencies )