India Reiterates Commitment To Wi-Fi For Every Village

The Indian government reiterated its commitment to provide Wi-Fi in every village across the country at a telecom event, earlier this week.

The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), which is run by the government, celebrated its 36^th Foundation Day and launched three new technologies.

At the event, the Minister of State for Communications said that BharatNet plans to provide 1 GBPS connectivity, which can be expanded up to 10 GBPS, to villages in the country.

BharatNet is the world’s largest rural broadband connectivity project and aims to connect all India’s village councils (approximately 250,000) through broadband connectivity. It provides affordable broadband services to citizens and institutions in rural areas. Phase-I of the project ended in December 2017, with over 100,000 village councils being made service-ready.

C-DoT’s latest innovations are the C-Sat-Fi (C-DOT Satellite WiFi), XGS-PON (10 G Symmetrical Passive Optical Network), and C-DoT’s CiSTB (Interoperable Set-Top Box).

These technologies will empower Indian citizens, especially in rural and remote areas. Easy access to telephone and Wi-Fi facilities will be a reality for people in all corners of the country on any mobile phone.

C-SAT-Fi

C-DoT Satellite WiFi is based on the optimal utilisation of wireless and satellite communication to extend connectivity to remote islands and difficult terrains.

Besides offering the ease of deployment, the solution is ideally suited to address disasters and emergencies when no other means of communication are available. This cost-effective solution does not require expensive satellite phones and can work on any WiFi-enabled phone.

XGSPON

10 G Symmetrical Passive Optical Network is an effective solution to fulfil the rapidly increasing demands of high-network speeds emanating from the new dimensions of user applications like IPTV, HD video streaming, online gaming, and a host of other cloud-based services that necessitate the seamless availability of high bandwidth.

CiSTB

The C-DOT Interoperable Set-Top Box is a solution for dissatisfied customers who cannot change their Cable TV operator because of the recurring costs of setting up and installing new physical infrastructure.

It is based on a portable smart card, like a mobile SIM.

C-DOT is a telecom R&D centre under the government. It held a technical conference as part of GB Meemamsi Lecture Series 2019. At the conference, field experts, telecom veterans, and academicians from around the world shared their experiences and discussed innovative ways to address the challenges faced by technology developers, policymakers, and end-users in Industry 4.0.

The conference was jointly organised by C-DOT and European Telecommunications Standards Institute under the aegis of a European Union funded project on India-EU Cooperation on ICT- Related Standardisation, Policy, and Legislation.

The event held deliberations on a wide range of contemporary subjects. Including, the critical need of IoT/M2M standardisation and its impact on the digital economy.

Participants discussed various security and data protection aspects related to IoT/M2M deployments, diverse applications, and use cases of IoT/M2M.

Also, the event held a session dedicated to the standardised implementation of smart cities.―OpenGov Asia