Tag: Vihaan Networks Limited

  • Bharat Net first phase nears completion, provides b’band to village admin

    NEW DELHI: E-commerce services, including e governance, education and even reaching television services to far flung areas will get a fillip with the completion of the first phase of Bharat Net and BSNL’s target of providing 100,000 gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground optic fibre cable (OFC) lines by the end of this month.

    Bharat Net is supposed to provide broadband in urban areas but has extended its work to reach out to rural India as well. The project is a Centre-State collaborative project, with the States contributing free rights of way for establishing the OFC.

    Congratulating the Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) founder and chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said: “As creators of digital villages, we assure the government that we stand by the government’s vision of Digital India and are committed to helping connectivity reach rural and remote locations through initiatives such as BharatNet through indigenously developed and manufactured, sustainable wireless access technology.”

    BharatNet is a project to establish a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis to provide on demand affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, in partnership with States and the private sector.

    The entire project is being funded by Universal Sservice Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country. The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.

    The second phase will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 grampanchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media. It is to be completed by December 2018. For success in phase-2, which will also involve laying of OFC over electricity poles, the participation of States will be important. This is a new element of the BharatNet strategy as the mode of connectivity by aerial OFC has several advantages, including lower cost, speedier implementation, easy maintenance and utilization of existing power line infrastructure. The last mile connectivity to citizens was proposed to be provided creating Wi-Fi hotspots in grampanchayats or village administration.

    In the third phase from 2018 to 2023, state-of-the-art, future-proof network, including fibre between districts and blocks, with ring topology to provide redundancy would be created.

    Earlier in September last year, the government completed roll out of a telecom network in areas worst affected by left-wing extremism across 10 States in record time as part of a major initiative to boost development in areas dominated by Left-wing extremists.

    Working with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) , Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) set up the lion’s share of the world’s largest solar-powered green mobile network in Left-wing extremist affected regions using indigenously designed and manufactured technology in a record time of less than 18 months and is now operating and managing it for a period of five years.

    Around 100 districts across 10 states—Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh—are considered to be Left-wing extremists-infested areas where school buildings, roads, railways, bridges, health infrastructure and communication facilities in these areas are disrupted or sought to be disrupted.

  • Indian equipment makers keen to export telecom goods

    NEW DELHI: The Indian Government is keen to partner with ASEAN countries in enabling Digital Connectivity between India and ASEAN region and also for enabling broadband within ASEAN countries.

    India said these digital connectivity projects are of strategic importance and can have a transformative impact on the economy and cooperation between ASEAN and India.

    This was stated during talks between India and telecom ministers, senior government officials and industry leaders from Bangladesh, Cambodia, Laos PDR, Indonesia and Bhutan to commemorate the 25th year of the ASEAN India relations

    Organized by the TEPC (Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council), the inter-ministerial meeting was led on the Indian side by Communications Minister Manoj Sinha.

    India has committed to provide financial as well as technological support for projects that could include-high-speed fiber optic networks, digital villages, rural broadband, national knowledge network, secured communication networks and telecom training and skill development.

    Taking part in the discussions, Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) Chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said “To take the telecom revolution in India to its new level of growth, the domestic equipment manufacturers should come forward and take the lead. Today such a concerted move will also fulfill the government’s vision of Make In India and bring in significant indigenization which is the need of the hour.”

    Telecom Secretary J S Deepak said “The potential of partnership between India and ASEAN in the arena of telecom is significant. There is a huge demand for capacity building which the Indian partners can contribute.”

    Indian companies have created world-class products and solutions which are not only of the highest quality and are also very cost-competitive. They are therefore keen to export to customers in ASEAN region, who have similar requirements like India.