DoT activities- September 2021

The Department of Telecommunications had a busy September. Some of its activities were:

1. Assess the progress of 5G technology trials and status of integration of indigenous solution & products, separate review meetings were organized with each of the three private TSPs. TSPs have made significant progress in deploying 5G trial network and demonstrated some of the indigenous use-cases, including those generated by the Department’s hackathon exercise. They have also signed NDAs (Non-Disclosure Agreements) with some of the indigenous 5G technology members for moving ahead for use-case trials. 1his augurs well for Start- ups/SM Ls/Academia and will strengthen the 5G Ecosystem in India.
2. The Unified License and Commercial VSAT CUG license regime have been liberalized by permitting:

• i3ackhaul connectivity through satellite using VSAT to access Service providers for cellular mobile services and Wi -Fi hotspots.
• Sharing of VSAT hub for both commercial VSAT CUG service and NLD Service.
• Sharing of active and passive infrastructure under any service authorization for providing other authorized services to the same licensee.
• Sharing of gateway hub for HTS satellites, managed and operated by satellite provider itself, with the satellite bandwidth seeker.

3. International collaborating/events:

• The India-US 5G Network Security Seminar was held virtually on September 15-16, 2021. From India, NSCS, MEA, DoT and TRAI participated.
• The India-Japan Intergovernmental Consultation and Public-Private workshop in the field of 5G was held virtually on September 29-30, 2021 . From India, MEA, MeitY, NSCS, DoT, Airtel, Reliance Jio, ITI Ltd, Sterlite Technologies, COAI, DIPA, I ISC, IIT Madras and IIT Hyderabad participated.

4. Telecom Engineering Centre (TEC), an attached office of this Department completed evaluation of 81 products for determination of twisted sources till 30.09.21 on Trusted Telecom Portal. This is in accordance with mandate under the National Security Directive for procurement or’ Telecommunication Equipment.
5. Performance of PSUs of DoT

1. BHARAT SANCHAR NIGAM LTD. (BSNL)
   • Gross SIM sale for the month: 11,69,756
   • Gross Bharat Fiber (FTTH) Achievement (Etata): 1.07,765 connections.
   • Gross Landline Achievement: 23,668 connections.
   • Gross Bharat Air Fiber Achievement (Data): 2,038

• Gross ADSL Broadband Achievement: 7,763 connections
• 150 GB of Caching and 30 GB of peering links have been added (cumulatively 1050 GB links in current FY 2021-22) making the cumulative capacity of 2600Gbps Caching and 2327.05 GB Peering link capacity.
• The data traffic from wire line broadband has increased from 118.2 PB (April-2019), 155 PB (April, 2020) and 278.6 PB (April, 2021) to347.26 PB in the month of September. 2021.
• For upgrading of old legacy wireline exchange. out of planned 4.76 M capacity NGN port migration, 0.0012 M capacity is migrated in the month of September, 2021 (cumulative 3.875M migrated).

2. TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANTS INDIA LIMITED (TCIL)

Major highlights:

• Provisional Operating Turnover up to August, 2021 for the Financial Year 2021-22 is Rs. 579.19 crores against Rs. 484.85 crores for the Financial Year 2020-21 in the comparative period.
• TCIL have secured orders for a total of approximately Rs.65. 70 Crores from foreign & inland clients in the month of September. 2021

3. INDIAN TELEPHONE INDUSTRY (ITI):

The performance of the Company in the month of September, 2021 is Rs. 249,29 crore (provisional). The cumulative performance for the FY 2021-22 is Rs. 637. 72 crore. The turnover is mainly constituted from execution of NFS project, DCN BTU, Defense AMC, SMPS. Solar Panel manufacturing, Solar Street lights, Mini PC, WiFi Hotspots, Airtel FTTH Rollout, A SCON PH-IV, HDPE Manufacturing, OFC manufacturing, AMC tor ASCON, Defense Equipment, NGN equipment, GSM-SZ, OCB, GujNet. 3D Printing, MLLN, Business from Data Centre, upgradation of Data Centre for Indian Air Force. Test labs, Reliability lab, Start-up Hub, VSSC Business, SaaS, Third Party Audit Services (TPA) for implementation of BharatNet phase-II project in the States of Odisha and Jharkhand and various other slates, business generated by Corporate. MSP, etc.

27. BharatNet: BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all the Gram Panchayats (approx. 2,50,000) in the country. The cumulative status of the BharatNet project, as on 27.09.2021 is as follows:

As part of this flagship project, the Last Mile connectivity, through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology to access broadband /internet services is to be provided at all the GPs in the country. Wi-Fi hotspots have been installed at 1.04.218 GPs and out of them, services are being

provided at 64,905GPs, catering to more than 16,17,579 subscribers with a data usage, about 3670.52 TB per month.

Extension of BharatNet connectivity upto villages: The scope of BharatNet has now been extended upto all inhabited villages beyond GPs. On 30.06.2021, Union Cabinet accorded approval for a revised strategy for implementation of BharatNet through Public-Private Partnership (PPP)

model in 16 States of the country covering about 3.61 lakh villages (including 1.37 lakh GPs). The estimated maximum Viability Gap Funding (VGF) approved for the above PPP model is Rs. 19,041

crores and the tar8eted date for completion of the project is August, 2023. The Cabinet has also accorded in-principle approval for extending broadband to all inhabited villages of the remaining States and Union Territories (UTs).

For implementation of the PPP model in 16 States, the Request for Proposal (RFP) has been floated on 20.07.2021 through global biding for selection of the Private Sector Partner(s) and two pre-bid meetings have been held.

1. Total no. of telephones & teledensity

The details regarding number of telephones and tele-density in the country at the end of August, 2021 is as under-

CT Bureau