Spin off BSNL's infra unit for rural broadband push: panel

A high-level panel has suggested carving out an infrastructure company from telecom PSU BSNL and providing Rs 18,000 crore from the Universal Service Organisation Fund to connect rural India with high speed Internet services.

The Universal Service Organisation Fund is created by the DoT to finance rural telecom network rollout of service providers.

"Carve out an infrastructure company from BSNL which can work with support of other PSUs like PGCIL and Raitel. The existing OFC (Optical Fibre Connectivity) network of BSNL could also be transferred to this company," an Inter- Ministerial Committee, set up by the Cabinet Secretariat to prepare a concept paper on 'broadband for all-an integrated approach for rural areas', said in its report.

Telecom Secretary P J Thomas recently called a meeting to discuss the recommendations of the Committee which is aimed at helping government connect 2.5 lakh village panchayats with OFC with 2 MBPS connectivity. This would need laying down 5 lakh km of OFC at an estimated investment of Rs 18,000 crore by various ministries with major contributions coming from USO(F).

The meeting which was attended by senior DoT officials along with top BSNL functionaries in charge of broadband also decided that whatever broadband infrastructure gets laid, it must be sufficient to cater to the anticipated data need of rural India for next 20-30 years.

The panel said OFC connectivity should be provided to all the 2.5 lakh village panchayats to ensure availability of high speed broadband (2MBPS) to all of them and an estimated amount of Rs 18,000 crore will have to be provided from USO Fund for laying 5 lakh km of OFC over a period of three years.

During the meeting, USO Fund administrator was asked to prepare a detailed project report along with cost estimates for the project and anticipated rate of  return.

The panel suggested if necessary Cabinet or a Group of Ministers can be set up for taking final decisions on the recommendations.

BSNL has already connected 79,165 village panchayats through other technologies like EVDO, 3G, ADSL, WiMax and DSPT. It further plans to connect 1.33 lakh villages through WiMax.