ravi_patent 28 Report post Posted April 29, 2011 (edited) http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-info-tech/article1819813.ece Rural folks living in six lakh remote villages across the country will soon get high speed broadband services for just Rs 99 a month. Villagers won't have to pay any upfront cost for taking a connection and also get the consumer premise equipment free of cost. This is being made possible because the Department of Telecom has finalised a scheme whereby telecom operators will be given money to roll out wireless broadband network in villages. Four plans In return for the subsidy, operators will have to offer the tariffs fixed by the DoT and minimum speeds of 512 kbps. The DoT has decided on four tariff plans, the cheapest one being Rs 99 a month with 500 Mb of free download (enough for watching streaming video for 8 hours or download 100 songs). For higher data usage, consumers can opt for Rs 400 a month bundled with 10 GB free download. For Government institutions, there is an unlimited download plan for Rs 800 a month. The project will be funded by the Universal Services Obligation (USO) which a corpus of nearly Rs 20,000 crore. For providing the subsidy, DoT will select one private operator in each circle through a bidding process. Telecom companies with unified access licence or Internet service licence will be allowed to bid. According to the draft tender document, the operators which agree to cover all the villages in a circle at the lowest cost will be given the contract. BSNL will also be given the same amount by default. Once the operator is selected it will be responsible for installing the required network and providing modems, dongles and devices to consumers. Operators are free to choose the technology but will have to roll out services in 10 per cent the targeted districts within 12 months and complete coverage within 24 months. Broadband wireless Operators will get subsidy in a phased manner over 8 years in addition to Rs 2,000 for each consumer premise equipment. The broadband project has been in the making for the past five years but could not be implemented because of the delays in auctioning for broadband wireless spectrum. Now that the spectrum has been sold, the DoT has decided to push through with the project. The final tender document is expected to be released in the first week of May while the bids are expected to be opened in the latter half of June. Broadband growth rate in India has been sluggish compared to the uptake in mobile usage. While there are nearly 14-15 million new mobile subscribers every month, only a few lakh new broadband connections are being added each month. The Government had set a target of reaching 20 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2010 but fell short by 50 per cent. Edited April 29, 2011 by ravi_patent Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kesav 127 Report post Posted April 29, 2011 Good initiative to bring a private player in the loop..... These plans are already available with BSNL for quite sometime. http://bsnl.co.in/service/new_BB/Rural_USOF_BB.htm It's clear who'll be that private player....Reliance Infotel...... But I feel the problem of broadband is mainly related to the cost of computer/laptop. A rural folk just cannot offer to shell out Rs. 20,000 so easily..... Another bigger issue is availability of content in regional languages... Unless otherwise the content becomes vernacular, broadband will remain premium service and not basic service. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ravi_patent 28 Report post Posted April 29, 2011 reg content you are correct ,kesav and probably biggest mental stumbling block reg prices ,is it necessary to shell out 20k , unless one wants to indulge say gaming..a search for basic computer in techtree ,throws up many options. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
digitalnirvana 646 Report post Posted April 29, 2011 Good initiative. Content in vernacular language is already there especially weather, selling of agricultural crops, pricing which are going to be most important for rural people but it needs to be expanded. There is no need for PC initially one can follow the Karnataka system where one POS is there in each taluka or village and people can come and use it as a PCO. When people are used to the internet then government can encourage low cost tablets for personal use. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Venkatagiri 53 Report post Posted May 7, 2011 http://www.thehindubusinessline.com/todays-paper/tp-info-tech/article1819813.ece Rural folks living in six lakh remote villages across the country will soon get high speed broadband services for just99 a month. Four plans In return for the subsidy, operators will have to offer the tariffs fixed by the DoT and minimum speeds of 512 kbps. The DoT has decided on four tariff plans, the cheapest one being99 a month with 500 Mb of free download. For higher data usage, consumers can opt for400 a month bundled with 10 GB free download. For Government institutions, there is an unlimited download plan for800 a month. I think of three plans good for rural folk Rs 99 _ unlimited data for a month_at 128 Kbps Rs199_ unlimited data for a month_at 512 Kbps Rs299_ unlimited data for a month_at 2 Mbps Because unlimited data removes fear to discover Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
