Telecom Minister to launch first NOFN project today

Bengaluru: Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad will today commission the  country’s first hi-speed rural broadband network in Idukki district of Kerala under the Digital India Program.

With this, Kerala will be the first state to be fully covered by broadband connectivity under the national optical fiber network (NOFN) project, which aims to connect 2.5 lakh gram panchayats across India by December 2016.

The state will be completely connected by optic fiber by March.

The commissioning will take place in the presence of  Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, PK Kunhalikutty, Minister for Industries & IT, MK Muneer, Minister for Panachayats and Social Welfare, Govt of Kerala, PJ Joseph, Minister, Irrigation, Govt. of Kerala, VS Achuthanandan, Leader of Opposition, among other dignitaries.

NOFN is the largest rural connectivity project in the world, which aims to connect 2.5 lakh Gram Panchayats (GPs) of India, facilitating broadband connectivity to over 600 million rural citizens of the country.

It is funded by the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF), Department of Telecom, Ministry of Communications & IT, Govt of India. In the first phase NOFN will cover 50,000 GPs, with the rest expected to be covered in a phased manner by 2016.

The project is being implemented by three central PSUs (CPSUs) namely BSNL, PGCIL and Railtel in the phase first.