National Opti­cal Fiber Network (NOFN) for Broadband Connectivity

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on July 22, 2011 has cleared creation of a ‘National Optical Fibre Network’ (NOFN) with an investment of Rs.20, 000 crore that would provide broadband connectivity to all village panchayats in three years.

The Telecom Commission (DoT) decision-making arm) has approved the project that will be funded through the Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund. The project will be completed by 2014-15 through a special purpose vehicle (SPV). The funding for the broadband network will come from the USO fund; the USO fund has a balance of Rs 16,000 crore.

A World Bank study revealed that a 10 per cent increase in broadband connectivity helps in pushing the GDP growth by 1.4 per cent. Once completed, the optic fibre network will help bring various electronic and Internet-based initiatives of the government to the people living in the remotest corner of the country.

The broadband project will initially be executed by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and other PSUs like RailTel and if necessary, DoT will involve the private sector at a later stage to ensure that the project is completed within the stipulated period.

NFON will also help the government implement its various e-governance initiatives such as e-health, e-banking and e-education, facilitating inclusive growth. NOFN will enable effective and faster implementation of various mission mode e-governance projects amounting to Rs.50,000 crore initiated by the Department of Information Technology as well as delivery of a whole range of electronic services by the private sector to citizens in rural areas.

The next revolution in the IT and communications sector should be in broadband. According to telecom regulator TRAI, the present data on the number of broadband subscribers only indicates individual connections, without throwing any light on the actual number of users accessing the broadband services or the usage pattern, as well as the hindrances and barriers to adoption and usage of broadband.

The number of broadband subscribers at the end of March 2005, stood at 0.18 million and it increased to 12.12 million at the end of May, 2011, TRAI data revealed. There is an urgent need for a nationwide broadband network to connect education, healthcare, banking and other services infrastructure to the entire population, thereby realising the objective of inclusive growth.

The optic fibre network will therefore help bring various electronic and Internet-based initiatives of the government to the people living in the remotest corner of the country. 2500 Panchayats will be connected to monitor the various government schemes including the allotment of Aadhar the UID numbers. 33 new major applications will be built using the open source code.

These applications will use NOFN to connect rural areas with educational institutions, health service and central government services. The Department of Telecommunication (DoT) identified three business models to build a national broadband network to take high-speed Internet to rural areas.