Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infratel, STL, Cisco, L&T, Hughes eye BharatNet

New Delhi/Kolkata: Telecom and technology majors including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Infratel, STL, Cisco, Larson & Toubro and Hughes Communications are among nearly 40 companies vying to take broadband services to rural India as part of the country’s ambitious BharatNet project, documents accessed by ET show.

The pre-bid conference for the rollout of the second phase of the project, which is expected to link 3.61 lakh villages by August 2023, recorded heightened interest from private sector players on the back of rising digital adoption due to the ongoing pandemic. Industry executives told ET that greater clarity around viability gap funding- with the government promising support of up to Rs 19,041 crore– is also spurring interest in the project.