BharatNet at crossroads: BBNL, CSC spar on last-mile equipment deployment

The spat between the two government agencies — Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) and Common Service Centre (CSC) — have come to fore following the shifting of last-mile equipment for the utilisation of the national broadband network.

In a two-page letter to the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) administrator Ansuli Arya dated May 2, seen by ETT, BBNL chairman Sarvesh Singh said that CSC has violated a tripartite agreement and shifted equipment in multiple states without any disclosure.

“CSC SPV has shifted the equipment without intimating the details of shifted location and the new custodian. This is in violation of clause 2.8.2 of the tripartite agreement,” Singh in his letter to the top official said.

BBNL further said that CSC or Digital Seva Kendra’s demand for the unconditional universal permission to shift the equipment to village-level entrepreneurs (VLE) premises in every village block could not be agreed upon.

The letter comes at a time when there was a large-scale shift in last-mile equipment happening to empower local entrepreneurs, which according to industry sources would also impact hardware warranty.

VLE is a localised village-level private entity working on a franchisee model for the delivery of e-Governance services.

“In case of unchecked shifting, even with best intentions, CSC would not be able to comply to handing out infrastructure to the fund administrator in a working condition that might be transferred to a private service provider in future”―Bharat Broadband to USOF

“BBNL has to provide non-discriminatory access to all the TSP/ISPs. Shifting the equipment to VLE premises will be a hindrance in the achievement of the same,” the SPV in the letter said and added the CSC should come up with a clear standard operating procedure (SOP).

Queries to USOF administrator, CSC and BBNL didn’t elicit any response.

In July 2019, CSC, BBNL and USOF have entered into a tripartite agreement to fast track deployment of Wi-Fi access points in 103,241 village blocks under the BharatNet – I, providing FTTH connections to five public institutions that can be charged after a year-long free service.

Each hotspot has been approved at a cost of Rs 80,000 with two in each village block in order to utilise the last-mile infrastructure created under the BharaNet-I.

BBNL further said that in case of unchecked shifting, even with best intentions, CSC would not be able to comply to handing out infrastructure to the fund administrator in a working condition that might be transferred to a private service provider in future.

Both BBNL and CSC are the special purpose vehicle (SPV) under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) respectively. The USOF is a Rs 50,000 crore strong corpus aimed to bridge the digital divide in India’s rural and remote regions.

BharatNet, erstwhile National Optic Fibre Network launched under the UPA-II regime in 2012, aimed to offer high-speed Internet services to 2.5 lakh village blocks encompassing more than 6 lakh villages, has missed multiple deadlines since then which is now revised to August 2021.

Until March 31, 2020, BBNL has deployed 432,952 kilometres of optical fibre cable connecting 1,51,729 village blocks that included 138,409 service-ready blocks.

―Gadgets Now