'Govt WiFi project at panchayats to be more cost effective'

A WiFi based broadband project at village panchayat level, involving operational expenditure of Rs 2,472 crore annually by the government, will lead to huge savings compared to market costs, according to a study.
"The per annum cost of covering operational expenses for Government Users Network (GUN) is Rs 2,742 crore for the Ministry of Rural Development. The same bandwidth at existing market rates with available service providers would cost Rs 15,435 crore annually. This was found in a study by consulting firm PwC," an official source said.
This means annual saving of Rs 13,000 crore, the source added.
MoRD has been asked to provide operational expenses for 10 years. The Ministry has sought approval of Expenditure Finance Committee for seeking Rs 2,742 crore annual operational funds for the project.

The GUN over NOFN project has been already approved by inter-ministerial panel, the Telecom Commission.
Under GUN project, government has plans to provide WiFi services at panchayat levels. There is an additional requirement of funds beyond around Rs 20,000 crore approved for the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project.
As per initial estimates, the capital expenditure of Rs 4,942 crore and operational expense (opex) of Rs 2,472 crore per annum will be required.
Under GUN, government aims to provide WiFi speed of 50 megabit per second (mbps) at each village panchayat. At this a speed, users can download a video equivalent to length of general Bollywood movie in about 2 minutes.