India Advances Plan to Extend Fibre to Rural Villages

The Indian government approved a plan for extending the forthcoming National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) to rural villages. The goal is to extend broadband connectivity to some 250,000 rural villages by utilizing the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) and creating an institutional mechanism for management and operation of the NOFN for ensuring non discriminatory access to all service providers. An initial project will map the networks of various telecom operators such BSNL, Rail Tel, Power Grid, etc. The incremental fibre length can then be determined for connecting rural villages to the nearest fibre point. http://pib.nic.in/newsite/erelease.aspx?relid=78075