India has commissioned the first high-speed rural broadband network in Idukki District, Kerala as part of the Digital India Program.
Chief Minister of Kerala Shri Oommen Chandy, Minister for Industry and IT, Govt. of Kerala Shri P. K. Kunhalikutty and Secretary Telecom Shri Rakesh Garg graced the launch in Thiruvananthapuram on Monday.
The NOFN, which is being funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communications & IT, government of India is the largest rural connectivity project in the country, which seeks to link each of the 250,000 Gram Panchayats of India through Broadband optical fibre network.
Upon its completion, NOFN is expected to facilitate broadband connectivity to over 600 million rural citizens of the country.
The government said in the first phase, NOFN shall be extended to cover 50,000 GPs, with the balance 200,000 GPs expected to be covered in a phased manner by 2016.
The project is being implemented by three central PSUs (CPSUs) namely BSNL, PGCIL and Railtel in the phase first.
A key feature of the project is that the GPON equipment used in the project has been indigenously designed and developed by C-DOT and manufactured domestically. The project will be centrally managed by BBNL through a high capacity Network Management System being developed by C-DOT.
The project is expected to open up new avenues for access service providers such as telecom service providers, Internet service providers, cable TV operators, and content providers to launch next generation services and spur creation of local employment opportunities.