Wired broad band is one of the most cost effective of building the backbone to deliver high speed connectivity to Tier II, Tier III cities and rural India. While providing "Open Access" on the existing fiber and copper is one of the best ways there are other interesting possibilities as well waiting to be exploited.
And that is the Optic Fiber run on Transmission Lines. Composite Optic Power Ground wire, which is run on existing Transmission Lines serve two distinct purposes. It acts as earth wire for the Line(shielding) and also provide Optic fiber (up to 24 fibers as a standard).
With the Electrical utilities, already having a ready made "Right of Way" , these Optic Fibers which are run on thees lines with the end equipments housed in various stations provide the opportunity to take Fiber along all the main state trunk routes. It also saves enormous costs for the utilities who are increasingly going on for Automation of billing, etc for which they are currently hiring broad band from ISPs.
With the enormous reach of the Electrical utility in the state and their established mechanism to provide O&M services, the Optic fiber once laid will provide additional revenue streams. It is also easy to break the fiber at intermediate Substations and add signals, This facilitates additions of intermediate stations which are other wise unattractive locations from the revenue point of view of Service Providers. One can also look at the possibility of leasing out space for the Mobile operators in the substations, along with back bone connectivity to provide wireless signals for the last mile.
For the utilities this provide a new stream of revenue and the government a cost effective solution.
Once the Optic fiber is in place connected, the Government can lease some of the fibers for its educational services, Telemedicine and e Governance. The surplus fiber can be either leased out as "Dark Fiber " or the utility can provide bandwidth as well.
TRAI shall take the decision to provide "Automatic" state level Service Provider's Licence to the Electric public utility as a starter.
PGCIL has already laid the fiber and is generating revenues. Some of the forward looking electricity boards are already working on it and has commenced the work. The time is right to take a decisive move on this initiative.
1 comment:
Composite Optic power ground wire eh? :) Awesome concept. I guess it'a lot more cost-effective than wifying a place - & delivers high speed connectivity too? Maybe it's an economical option for Tier1 cities too. This view stems from the fact that in Cannada some ambitious wifi plans were withdrawn because of the cost involved...so maybe they cud also evaluate this option?!
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