BharatNet gets nod to Rs 1.39-lakh-cr broadband project for 6.4 lakh villages

The Cabinet in June approved the third revival package for BSNL with a total outlay of Rs 89,047 crore.

The Union Cabinet has given the green signal for the last-mile broadband connectivity plan for 6.4 lakh villages across India under the BharatNet project with an outlay of Rs 1.39 lakh crore, news agency PTI reported, citing anonymous sources.

With this upgrade, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) aims to speed up the process of connecting all 6.4 lakh villages within the next two and a half years. At present, nearly 1.94 lakh villages have been connected under the BharatNet project.

Friday’s Cabinet meeting approved Rs 1,39,579 crore for providing last mile optical fibre-based connectivity to homes in all villages of the country, the news agency mentioned.

Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), an arm of state-controlled BSNL, in partnership with village level entrepreneur (VLE) will provide the last-mile connectivity.

BBN will provide customer premise equipment and additional fibre required for connecting homes while local entrepreneurs have been tasked with maintaining the network.

“The model to take fibre-to-the-home, with the help of a local entrepreneur, was finalised after the successful completion of a pilot project. The pilot project was initially carried out to connect villages in four districts and then expanded to 60,000 villages across most states,” sources told the agency.

The entrepreneurs will be compensated under a 50 percent revenue sharing model, where if a household is subscribing to a Rs 399 plan, the entrepreneurs will get Rs 199 out of it.

More importantly, the plan has an employment potential of 250,000 jobs. The project was finalised after a pilot project was carried out in four districts and then expanded to 60,000 across most states within one year.

"The broadband connection has started empowering rural areas where people have started getting treatment with the help of global doctors, some businessmen have started providing tutorials on YouTube, families are saving money on preparation for competitive exams, and many other use cases are coming up," the news agency quoted an unnamed source as saying.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in June approved the third revival package for BSNL with a total outlay of Rs 89,047 crore, primarily for expenses related to spectrum for 4G and 5G services. With the revival package, the total financial aid extended to the state-run telco has crossed Rs 3.2 lakh crore.

At 10.30 am, the BSE telecom index was trading 1.29 cent up at 1,887.29 on August 7, with Himachal Futuristic Communications (HFCL), Vindhya Telelink (up 8.30 per cent),  and Sterlite Technologies (up 4.47 per cent) as the top gainers.