Telecom firms reach out to BBNL for extra fibre to reduce capex spending

Telecom majors Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio have approached Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL) for extra optical fibre in order to reduce their capital expenditure.

These telecom service providers had expressed their interest in utilizing BharatNet connectivity mainly for extending their 4G/ LTE mobile services.

The firms have also deposited an advance of Rs 17.86 crore approximately in November 2017 for utilisation of BharatNet services.

Bharti Airtel provided a list of 3096 gram panchayats, feasibility of 2292 GPs was provided to them. Service provisioning has been done at 123 GPs (01 Gbps at each GP) in various states.

A list of 35,561 GPs was submitted by Reliance Jio to BBNL requesting for Bandwidth/dark fibre feasibility (essentially the extra optical fibre).

Out of 35561 GPs, the feasibility at 28,341 GPs was provided to them. Further, Reliance Jio was given one month’s facility for Free trial of services and the trial of services was conducted by Reliance Jio at 03 (three) GPs in Haryana and 02 (two) GPs in UP state.

Vodafone India has requested feasibility for dark fibre in 204 GPs in Haryana. Out of 204 GPs, the feasibility of 204 GPs was given and Advice Note for provisioning of extra fibre at 22 GPs for the company was issued. The service at 08 GPs has been done in Haryana.

It had also applied for bandwidth at one gram panchayat in Gujarat and bandwidth 660 Mbps service has been provisioned.

1. Bharati Airtel ---- Rs 4.5 crore

2. Vodafone Idea ----   Rs 16 lakh

3. Reliance Jio --- Rs 13.19 crore