The Telecom Commission on Friday gave its nod to the project of connecting all the 2, 50,000 Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country under National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN).

It also include providing one wi-fi hotspot in each of the 2.5 lakh gram panchayats spread across the country.

National Telecom Policy envisages providing high speed and high quality broadband access to all village panchayats through a combination of technologies by the year 2014 and progressively to all villages and habitations by 2020.

The Central Government, through Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), is funding the project while the contribution of State Government would be by providing free Right of Way (RoW) for laying OFC.

Universal service obligation fund will provide the initial capital expenditure of Rs 3,750 crore while  Ministry of Rural Development fund the operating expenses of about Rs 1,860 crore.
 
The project will be executed by Bharat Broadband Network Limited. The tenure of the project is envisaged as 10 years to ensure viability.

Today, India is one of the fastest growing telecom markets in the world. The unprecedented increase in teledensity and sharp decline in tariffs in the Indian telecom sector have contributed significantly to the country’s economic growth. Besides contributing to about 3% to India’s GDP, Telecommunications, along with Information Technology, has greatly accelerated the growth of the economic and social sectors.

The rural India holds a great prospect for fuelling economic growth on the China where rural teledensity has got great focus resulting tremendous economic growth.

Certain government policies meant for empowering people in rural India such as MNREGA, PDS, Land Records, Birth/Death Certificates, Digital Literacy, e-Governance, education, health, employment, agriculture and commerce may be launched using this network.