Port Blair, Jan 19: Improving the telecommunication facility and providing quality telecom services has been identified as one of the thrust area of development by A & N Administration. The A&N Administration has identified various areas for development which include improving the telecom bandwidth between Island & mainland for better internet and mobile connectivity. The short term plan is to augment the satellite bandwidth at least up to 1 Gbps while the long term plan is to lay submarine optical fiber cable between mainland and Island.
Apart from this, efforts will be made to spread and penetration of telecom services within the Island and Inter islands so as to reach all the inhabited villages with 2G mobile coverage.
During last 18 months, the A & N Administration has been vigorously following up with Government of India viz. Department of Telecommunication, Department of Space, ISRO, BSNL at various levels. The Lt Governor had taken up the matter with Prime Minister and Minister for Communication & IT for their intervention for improvement of the telecom facility in a time bound manner.
Pursuant to consistent follow up by A & N Administration, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) conducted a detailed study and submitted a comprehensive report to Ministry of Communication and IT in the month of July, 2014. This kind of comprehensive planning in telecom sector was made for the first time which will take care of the requirement for the next 20-25 years.
In reply to the DO letter from the Lt Governor to Ministry for Communication & IT, The Minister has informed that the Ministry has accorded in-principle approval of the recommendation made by TRAI and following actions have been initiated.
Short term- Telecom Commission has accorded approval for the following proposal:
Rs 83.09 crore for providing 2G (Voice) mobile coverage in uncovered villages to be awarded through competitive bidding.
Rs 9.40 crore for providing seamless 2G (Voice) mobile connectivity along National Highway No. 223 from Port Blair to Diglipur to be awarded through competitive bidding.
Rs 20 crore for augmentation of Intra-Island OFC network to be awarded to BSNL on nomination basis.
Rs 82.44 crore for ground equipments to augment satellite bandwidth to be awarded to BSNL on nomination basis.
Long Term: Based on the decision taken by the Planning Commission, M/s Telecommunication Consultant of India Limited (TCIL) have been entrusted with the task of conducting desktop study and preparation of DPR. It is expected that report and DPR would be submitted by TCIL by 15th February, 2015. Thereafter, the report and DPR would be placed before Telecom Commission and Cabinet for approval of the project of laying submarine cable between Chennai Cable Landing Station and Port Blair Cable Landing Station.
Further, as per the direction of Cabinet Secretary, BSNL has taken action to augment the satellite bandwidth in phases. BSNL has hired 2 transponders from recently launched foreign Satellite (THAICOM-7) thus increasing the bandwidth by 50 Mbps taking the total satellite bandwidth up to 364 Mbps. BSNL is also in the process of hiring 6 transponders from THAICOM-7 which will give additional 300 Mbps of bandwidth and 6 Transponders from GSAT-16 (Indian Satellite) which will give additional 300 Mbps thus taking the overall bandwidth to 1 Gbps.
The above activity is expected to be completed by end of April, 2015. The increase in satellite bandwidth capacity if not sufficient will give some relief to the Islanders thus improving the quality of broad band, 2G and 3G services offered by BSNL a communication received here said.
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