The meeting of the Consultative Committee attached to the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology was held late Wednesday evening to discuss the National Broadband Plan of Department of Telecommunications.

The meeting was chaired by Kapil Sibal, the Union Minister of Communications and Information Technology. Sachin Pilot and Milind Deora, the Ministers of State for Communications and IT were also present in the meeting.

In his opening remarks Kapil Sibal, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology said that Information and Communication Technology (ICT) plays a significant role in bridging the divide between poor and non poor.

He emphasized on the urgent need for a nationwide broadband network to enable e-education, e-healthcare, e-banking, e-agriculture and other services to reach all villages electronically at affordable cost. Such a network would truly help in realising the objective of inclusive growth, the Minister added.

Broadband connectivity is increasingly seen as an integral driver of improved socio-economic performance. Sibal emphasized that all citizens of India should have access to broadband and the transformative opportunities it offers.

Broadband services would allow individuals to access new career and educational opportunities, they help businesses reach new markets and improve efficiency and they enhance the Government’s capacity to deliver critical services to all of its citizens. Mobile Broadband will be delivered to the palm of an individual through hand held devices which he/ she can carry with him/ her and is available 24X7.

The Minister, however, expressed concern that despite the known benefits of broadband, India had just 12.32 million broadband connections in the country at the end of June 2011 as against the target of 20 million broadband subscribers by 2010, set by the Broadband Policy 2004. The net broadband addition per month is just 0.2 to 0.3 million in contrast to around 18 million mobile connections per month. As per TRAI the total number of broadband connections is expected to be 75 million by 2012 and 160 million by 2014.

Substantial additional benefits of broadband particularly on mobile devices will accrue to the rural subscribers. Their requirements are much more, in fact, in some cases, more than in the case of the urban subscribers. Services like health care, education, e-governance, skill upgradation, entertainment etc. are of greater importance to them than to their urban counterparts.

These can be delivered to them through Broadband services. Another important service that would be delivered to them with ease would be M-banking and M-Governance. This will bring a sea change in the lives of the rural and un-banked population of our country.

Provision of Broadband in rural and remote areas will also help in providing “digital opportunities” and the widespread adoption of broadband in rural areas will have a multiplier effect cutting across various sectors of the government over the long-term.

It will help create employment and improve productivity in rural areas, help overcome the constraints of an inadequate transport infrastructure and overall improve the quality of life in rural areas. Given the significant economic and social benefits, expanding affordable access to broadband is already a high priority for the Government.

The Minister informed the Committee that the Government, through USOF has formulated various schemes for Broadband. To start with, Rural Wireline Broadband is a scheme to provide Broadband connections in the rural and remote areas of the country. The Rural Wireline Broadband Scheme has adopted a technology neutral approach for implementation.

There is another scheme which is being formulated for satellite broadband connectivity in areas where terrestrial connectivity is not possible. The USOF is also working on a scheme for providing financial assistance by way of subsidy for the wireless broadband active infrastructure such as BTSs, by utilizing the existing infrastructure available with the Telecom service providers.This scheme would provide broadband coverage to a majority of villages at a speed of 512 kbps.

Broadband service is a high bandwidth service which requires a high bandwidth backhaul network. To meet this, Government is planning to build a National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) to provide optical connectivity to all the 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats by utilizing the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) and creating an institutional mechanism for management and operation of the NOFN for ensuring non-discriminatory access to all service providers.

A High Level Committee (HLC) has been setup under the Co-Chairmanship of Shri Sam Pitroda, Adviser to PM on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations and Shri Nandan Nilekani, Chairman UIDAI consisting of relevant Secretaries to Government of India to steer and coordinate all activities related to the creation, implementation and management of the National Optical Fiber Network (NOFN). An

Advisory Body consisting of major TSPs (Telecom Service Providers) and experts is also setup to advise on implementation issues and upstream and downstream integration as well as on issues relating to non-discriminatory access of proposed NOFN

The work of laying optical fibre network in a State would be undertaken only after that State agrees to appropriate arrangements regarding right of way permission and levying of reasonable right of way charges. For ensuring this, a suitable tripartite MOU amongst DoT, concerned State and EA would be executed.