NEW DELHI: In order to give fillip to internet/broadband facilities in rural areas, Bharatnet project has planned to provide 100 Mbps broadband connectivity to all gram Panchayats (approximately 2.5 lakh ) in the country by using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines radio and satellite media, the Lok Sabha was informed today.
In a written reply, Communications Minister Manoj Sinha said,”Under first phase of the project, one lakh gram panchayats, are to be connected by laying underground Optical fibre Cable which is under implementation. Under Phase-II , connectivity will be provided to remaining to 1.5 lakh GPs in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media.
Provision of last mile access to the network and broadband service provisioning will be through Wi-Fi or any other broadband access technologies in all 2,50,000 GPs in the country.”
“To cater to the rural areas of the country, Indian Space Research Organisation has recently launched GSAT-19 , a new generation high throughput satellite using high power multiple spot beams in Ka/Ku band , in June 2017.
The satellite can support higher data rate ground terminal for providing internet access and mobile backhaul services meant especially for the rural regions.A follow-on satellite, G-SAT-11 is planned before first quarter of 2018″, the minister informed.
Also, Government has allocated 965 Megahertz spectrum through auction in October 2016 to various Telecom Service Providers . In order to provide high speed internet services in the country, 3G/4G networks are being rolled out progressively by the Telecom Service Providers, Mr Sinha stated.
”India has a global rank of 89 with an average connection speed of 6.5 Mbps, as per an international agency called Akamai’s quarter 1, 2017 report on “The State of Internet” , he said.
”The global rank was 113 with average internet speed of 3.6 Mbps, as per Akamai’s Quarter 2, 2016 report.Internet speed in countries vary from each other.
The speed depends on various parameters such as technology deployed , network coverage, , number of simultaneous users accessing the internet, connectivity to the website being accessed among others,” the Communications Minister noted.
Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI) monitors average throughput in wireless networks on licensed service area basis.Constant efforts are being made to improve the internet speed in the country, he remarked.
”As per the reports received from TRAI, there were 342.65 million internet subscribers in the country as on March 31, 2016. The number of internet subscribers has increased to 422.21 million as on March 31, 2017. At this growth rate, country is expected to reach about 500 million internet subscribers by the year end,” the minister added. (AGENCIES)
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