Optical Fibre Cable

The Himachal Pradesh government has signed an agreement with BSNL for laying the optical fibre cable to provide 4G coverage in unconnected (remote and far-flung) areas of the state. A spokesperson of the state government informed on Friday that a memorandum of understanding (MoU) was signed by Department of Information Technology Director Mukesh Repaswal and BSNL-HP Principal General Manager Charan Singh in the presence of BSNL-HP Chief General Manager JS Sahota. This will be a step towards providing reliable and high-speed connectivity to every part of the state, especially the far-flung and remote regions of Kinnaur, Lahual & Spiti, and Pangi. The state government had proposed a project to the Centre for the provision of connectivity in the un-connected villages of the state and had received Rs 50 crore for the same. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was chosen as the executing agency for the project. Now, with the signing of the MoU, BSNL will start the process of laying down

Given the high costs of installing fibre, policies for wireless middle- and last-mile connectivity are urgently required

The government on Wednesday allocated Rs 1.23 lakh crore for postal and telecom projects including Rs 52,937 crore capital infusion in state-run BSNL. Total allocation includes Rs 97,579.05 crore for the Department of Telecom and Rs 25,814 crore for Postal projects, the Budget document presented by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on Wednesday. State-run BSNL, which is expected to roll out 4G and 5G services this year, will get Rs 52,937 crore capital infusion from the government in 2023-24. The government has allocated Rs 2,158 crore for Optical Fibre Cable based network for Defence Services and Rs 715.8 crore for telecom projects in the North Eastern states. The Department of Posts has been allocated Rs 25,814 crore and includes Rs 250 crore capital infusion in the India Post Payments Bank.

Digital solutions company Sterlite Technologies has said investment commitment of global customers for optical fibre remains strong despite macroeconomic headwinds and that telcos and hyperscalers will continue to spend to gain a market edge. According to Sterlite Tech Managing Director Ankit Agarwal, there is no change in the company's production scale-up plans or targets as demand for its product portfolio is robust. "In our key accounts, most of our customers are public, and their investment plans are well known. We track it and see fairly strong capex investment plans over 2-3 years and for some even up to the next 5 years," Agarwal told PTI. He said customers, both telecom and hyperscalers, continue to spend with a focus on innovation and technology. That demand is reflected in the company's order book of Rs 12,054 crore. The term hyperscalers refers to large cloud service providers, whose offerings include computing and storage at an enterprise scale. STL is also positive on

The government is working to bring down the cost of telecom operations to attract more investments in the sector, a top official said on Friday. While speaking at the CII Telecom Summit, telecom secretary K Rajaraman said the cost of maintaining optic fibre network is very forbidding. "(If) we are able to bring down the cost of operations for the telecom network, I am sure that more investment will come. We will be working on that. A lot of policy measures are underway," he said. Rajaraman said the government is running a pilot of 'Call before you dig' application in some states to avoid damages to telecom infrastructure while digging roads and doing other infrastructure-related works. He said that a good digital connectivity cannot rest on mobile service only and complimentary connectivity through fibre to support mobile services is very important. "In urban areas, optical fibre is available. In rural areas, BharatNet has enabled us to reach 1.89 lakh villages so far. Target is

States have to ensure that there is no duplication of the existing Bharat net project in setting up OFC networks

Optical fibre cable (OFC) manufacturers are bracing to meet a multifold increase in fiberisation, aggressively tap global markets to power 5G services, and cope with demand from fibre-to-the home

5G, fibre-to-home, Bharat Net will lead to demand surge in next 3-4 yrs

STL will provide specialised optical fibres and deployment services to build the service provider's network across nine telecom circles across the country.

Domestic telecom gear maker HFCL on Tuesday said it has bagged an order worth Rs 237.25 crore from a private telecom operator for supplying optical fibre cables. The company, however, did not disclose the name of the customer. "We are pleased to inform all the stakeholders that the company, along with its material subsidiary, HTL Limited, has received the purchase order aggregating to Rs 237.25 crore from one of the leading private telecom operators of the country for supply of optical fibre cables," HFCL said in a regulatory filing. The order is to be executed by October 2022, it added.

The industry will keep pushing for its other demand of lowering the charges to zero, COAI's director general SP Kochhar said

Completion rate is less than a third, and at current pace it would take another two years to cover all gram panchayats in the country.

Less restrictive regulations with better process discipline could improve broadband reach and functionality

The Centre had approved a viability gap fund of Rs 19,041 crore for the project that aimed to connect 3.61 lakh villages across 16 states

The proposal, Atmanirbhar Bharat Rojgar Yojana, announced earlier by SM Sitharman, aims to generate 5-6 million jobs by June next year

The fibre optic unit, which was earlier part of Reliance Industries Limited's (RIL) subsidiary Reliance Jio, has a debt of Rs 87,296 crore, which includes suppliers' credit

Another Rs 25,000 cr to be raised by way of debt

Proposal in line with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's announcement on August 15 to connect in a thousand days over six-lakh villages

The last part of the series analyses the goal of connecting 600,000 villages via optical fibre

Telecom department will have to rope in private companies to achieve the target announced on Independence Day.