Indian state-owned operator BSNL is rolling out a 100G optical transport network across the nation to allow it to provide ultra-fast broadband services.
The company launched the new OTN last week. The network currently covers 45 cities and will be expanded to 100 by March 2018, Kashmir Monitorreported. The deployment has a total budget of 3.3 billion rupees ($51.3 million).
As part of the project BSNL also aims to provide 99.99% uptime and has set up a dedicated network operations center in Bangalore to give round-the-clock technical support.
The deployment will meanwhile support the government's target of providing broadband connectivity to 250,000 village panchayats (local council areas) by December 2018. So far more than 100,000 villages have been connected with fiber under the government's initiative.
BSNL has a total customer base of around 115 million, but has struggled to remain competitive against deeper-pocketed private sector operators.
The upgrade will allow the company to improve its landline, FTTH and mobile services as well as its ability to provide ultra-high capacity leased lines to enterprise customers.