The Telecom Commission has approved a proposal to set-up high-speed wireless Internet (Wi-Fi) hotspots across 250,000 gram panchayats in the country. The project, entailing capital expenditure of Rs 37.5 billion and operational expenditure of Rs 18.60 billion, will be rolled out as part of the government?s national optical fibre network (NOFN) project.
Following the approval for setting-up Wi-Fi hotspots across the country, the cost of NOFN project is expected to increase from Rs 200 billion to Rs 255 billion. The additional cost of the project will be funded by Universal Service Obligation Fund, which is also financing the NOFN project.
As part of the project which is titled, ?Government User Network? (GUN), the government plans to provide one Wi-Fi hotspot and three connections of optic fibre in every gram panchayat in the country. The project is expected to be completed by March 2016.
