A digital growth story

On plans for expanding the OFC network
Our optical fiber network is present pan-India and we have exclusive RoW for OFC network of 67,415 route kilometers along Railway Track. As of September 30, 2020, our OFC network stands at 57,457 route kilometers. The transport network is built on high capacity Dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing Technology and an Internet protocol/ multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) network over it to support mission critical communication requirements of Indian Railways and other customers.

As per the CRISIL report titled, Assessment of the telecom and telecom data services industry in India dated September 2020, RailTel, is one of the largest neutral telecom infrastructure providers in India. We plan to continue to invest in expanding our network and deploying latest technologies to enable a high capacity next generation network in order to deliver sustained value to our customers and improve their experience with our services.

On Railwire
RailWire, the retail broadband initiative of RailTel, aims at extending broadband and application services (in association with local cable operators and other access network providers, by utilizing their last mile connectivity) to the public including in remote areas. RailWire focuses on pure-play broadband and VPN services and aims to provide value-added services in retail, education and healthcare sectors. RailWire offers a content and applications driven network and aims to become a hub of local information, platform for rendering communication, infotainment, education, health and community services to the masses. As of September 30, 2020, we had 2,58,885 RailWire users.

On RailTel’s CoD project
We are going to provide COD service in trains by preloading multilingual content on media servers installed in trains. With COD, passengers will be able to enjoy free or subscription based high quality streaming service on their personal devices during their train journey.

COD platform will also provide e-commerce and mobile commerce services. COD aims to improve overall passenger experience and increase the non-fare revenue through multiple monetization models. The service will be available in premium/mail/express/ suburban trains pan-India and at all Wi-Fi enabled railway stations. A digital entertainment service provider for providing COD has already been selected and roll out is being planned in a phased manner.

Any other new project on the drawing board
Given our expertise in handling a range of ICT infrastructure projects and our ability to provide diversified service and solutions, we intend to offer our services selectively in jurisdictions outside India. We are in discussions with MHRD for providing end-to-end e-learning systems and smart class rooms.

We will look to leverage our expertise of working and developing projects for the Indian Railways to other projects in Bangladesh where we are currently evaluating projects. In addition, we are exploring business opportunities in Mauritius, particularly in the healthcare segment. We intend to become a platform for regulators and fintech providers and implement these applications in other developing countries. We also intend to leverage our existing technology and work with the GoI to implement our capabilities in other countries.

Further, we intend to work with the Indian Railways to develop and manage their proposed LTE network that will create a private network along railway tracks. We also intend to work with the Indian Railways to meet their current and emerging communication infrastructure requirements by implementing the High-Speed Mobile Communications Corridor (HSMCC). The proposed HSMCC will cater to current and future voice and data needs of train-ground and train-train communication of rail assets, automatic train operations and on-board passenger services. We are currently working on an LTE-based communication system for Indian Railways which is similar to the Public Protection and Disaster Recovery (PPDR) networks that employ LTE standards.

We have also signed a MoU with Indian Railways to provide Hospital Management Information System (HMIS) in Railway hospitals across Delhi area. HMIS incorporates an integrated computerized clinical information system for improved hospital administration and patient health care.