18.3.16

AP fibre grid snippets

Launching phase one of the AP Fibre Grid project, chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu announced that the three north coastal districts of Visakhapatnam, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam would be provided fiber connectivity by April. At the same time, he announced that all the 13 districts would be connected with fiber network by the end of July this year.
Stating that information can do wonders, he said that AP is planning to provide broadband connectivity at the cheapest price in the world. Targeting 1.1 crore households in the state, he said AP is now providing the digital environment to the common man and the project can be replicated in other parts of the country too. The state government is aiming to provide telephone, cable connectivity and internet with 10-15 mbps at around Rs.150 per month, he said. Naidu said AP is also planning to register intellectual property rights for the project and the Centre has also constituted a committee to look into the project so as to replicate it across different parts of the country.
Earlier, the chief minister interacted with a household in Pedamushidivada, a zilla panchayat high school in Parawada and a primary health care centre in Sabbavaram demonstrating the benefits available to the common man from e-gov services, health and education. He said that people can directly connect with the government officials through video-conference via the broadband connections.
AP State FiberNet Limited (APSFL) managing director K Sambasiva Rao said, “ According to a World Bank study , a 10% enhancement in broadband will be lead to a 1.4% growth in GDP .“ He said that in the first phase 23000 kms of fiber lines will be laid and each household will get broadband connectivity of 10-15 mbps. “The project is just not about broadband, but last mile operators can provide value added services like cable TV , IP TV and telephone connections. We will be partnering with last mile operators to connect with around 1.1 crore households in a 5 km radius from 2449 PoPs (point of presence) in substations.“ He said about 9,000 km of aerial fiber network has already been laid in the state.
Pointing out that enrolment of last mile operators had already begun, he said that in the last three days around 500 local cable operators have already registered with APSFL. He said that APSFL will provide TIC (Telephone, Internet, Cable) boxes to integrate all three services and provide them to the doorstep of every household in the state. Hari K Prasad of Terra Software said, “The penetration of broadband in AP is about 2.5% with an average speed of around 512 kbps. By implementing this fiber project, we'll increase broadband penetration in rural areas and also start making profits in three years.“

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