Budget 2018: Govt earmarks Rs 100-bn for telecom infrastructure

In order to provide broadband connectivity to 50 million rural citizens, the government plans to set up 500,000 wi-fi hotspots. The government has earmarked Rs 100 billion in 2018-19 for creation and augmentation of telecom infrastructure in the country.

Presenting the Union Budget 2018-19 in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said task of connecting 100,000 gram panchayats through high speed optical fiber network has been completed under phase I of the Bharatnet project.

“This has enabled broadband access to over 200 million rural Indians in about 2,50,000 villages,” the Finance Minister said.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expecting to complete the phase 2 of BharatNet project by December this year. Under this phase the remaining 150,000 gram panchayats will be connected with high speed optical fibre.

The main objective of the BharatNet project is to provide affordable broadband services to rural and remote areas in partnership with private sector as well as state governments.

Private telecom operators including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone and Idea Cellular have shown interest in providing last mile connectivity in about 43,000 gram panchayats through the BharatNet project.

To make the scheme attractive and affordable, the government has announced a tariff structure, wherein the operators can take the optic fibre on lease and provide broadband connectivity to customers at cheaper rates.

Government feels that rolling out of services by telcos is expected to trigger the village level eco-system and will give an impetus to broadband facilities in rural India.

The Finance Minister also said to harness the benefit of emerging new technologies, particularly the ‘Fifth Generation’ (5G) and its adoption, the DoT will support establishment of an indigenous 5G test bed at IIT, Chennai.