Content area
Full Text
SELECTIONS: BSNL may find a lifeline in Rs 18,000-cr govt project
The government plans to award BSNL a Rs 18,000-crore project to improve broadband connectivity in the country, throwing a lifeline to a company whose snail-like expansion plans have left it groping in the dark against fleet-footed private rivals. The boadband for all project involves building WiMAX networks across rural India and laying a 5 lakh km optic fibre cable (OFC) to ensure that broadband connectivity reaches every panchayat, says a new proposal that is to be circulated for a meeting of secretaries on Monday. Though BSNL can strengthen and extend its own fibre and WiMAX networks, it must share the infrastructure with all private telcos. Enhancing BSNL's existing networks negates the need to create an independent company and duplicate infrastructure, as was originally proposed but abandoned after government officials thought it to be a waste of money. The proposal explores the wireless broadband option as well as involvement of the private sector in a bid to pre-empt howls of protests from critics. The earlier plan called for a new infrastructure company carved out of BSNL, Power Grid Corporation of India and RailTel to execute this project with support from the Universal Service Obligation(USO) Fund. The infrastructure was then...