Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad launches completely wireless BSNL Bharat AirFibre for rural areas in Bihar
New Delhi: BSNL takes a leap forward to fulfil Government of India’s vision of Broadband to All. Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad, Minister of Communications and Electronics & IT and Law & Justice, inaugurated a Next Generation Network Telephone Exchange at New Bihar Vidhan Mandal compound and Bharat Air Fibre service at Danapur Telephone Exchange in Bihar through Video conferencing from New Delhi on 29th August. Shri Sushil Kumar Modi, Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Awadhesh Narain Singh, Chairman Bihar Legislative Council along with other dignitaries graced the occasion .
This Next Generation Network Telephone exchange is a facility augmentation in Bihar Vidhan Mandal which will serve to the additional demand for reliable wireline and broadband services since it is connected on optical fibre . This exchange has a capacity of 512 telephone wireline and 128 broadband connections which can further be increased. New and Old Vidhan Mandal and 3 New Secretariat Block A, B And C will be served through this new facility.
While newly commissioned Bharat AirFibre will help to provide faster and reliable internet services in the rural area, Bharat AirFibre has speed at par with high-speed fibre FTTH and will serve upto 6 Km area covering R.K.Puram, Anandpur, Danapur Market and Danapur Cantonment from Danapur Telephone Exchange .
This being completely wireless technology is easy to deploy , more reliable, needs less maintenance and will provide connectivity in Non-feasible areas and villages which can’t be connected through FTTH. Bharat AirFibre works on the unlicensed spectrum and has very less interference which enables better quality of relay for the subscribers.
Bharat AirFibre will start its subscription at a low price point of Rs. 349 per month, this makes internet accessible and affordable to users in villages and difficult terrains.
“Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision is to convert challenges into opportunity for Aatmanirbhar Bharat and on the same lines my mission is also to take opportunities to rural corners of India. Especially in the times of Covid19 pandemic, there is immense scope for digital education, digital skilling and tele medicine etc and broadband connectivity in rural India will play a crucial role. Bharat AirFibre will help us to scale-up faster and meet the target of covering 6 Lakhs villages in 1000 Days.” said Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad.
During the event Telecom Minister also announced 50 more AirFibre sector antennas to be deployed in Bihar within next 6 months
In his address at the event Deputy Chief Minister of Bihar Shri Sushil Modi said “Bihar Governmet has recently notified Right of Way (RoW) rules to facilitate better deployment of mobile tower antennas and laying of fibre optic cable in the state. Also I am happy to mention recently I got the new BSNL FTTH broadband connection and I impressed with its high speed connectivity.”
Government of India has allotted various projects of national and strategic importance to BSNL that will help BSNL to contribute in nation building such as Network for spectrum (NFS), Bharat Net project for Optical Fiber connectivity including more than 3000 Gram Panchayats of strategic Union Territories of Jammu &Kashmir and Ladakh. Recently BSNL has commissioned submarine optical fibre cable between Chennai to Andaman & Nicobar Islands at a total cost of Rs 1224 Crore. Also, submarine Cable connectivity has been planned between mainland and Lakshadweep Islands and it will be executed by BSNL. Government of India has allotted 4 G spectrum to BSNL also worth nearly Rs 14,000cr. BSNL is making full preparation to launch 4G services across the country and thus helping to boost the Government’s initiative of “make in India”.
Besides various Government projects, BSNL has also provided almost 3Lakh FTTH/ Broadband connections across the country to meet the enhanced internet requirements of ‘work from home’ during last six months. Also, to bring delight to the customers BSNL has introduced various attractive tariff plans and simplified the various processes at BSNL Portal for greater digital engagement.