DELHI GOVERNMENT PLANS TO CONNECT EVERY HOME WITH OPTICAL FIBRE NETWORK

The Delhi Government plans to connect every home with all modes of digital communication through a network of optical fibres.

The government is working on a project to ensure that the facilities of broadband internet, cable TV and landline telephone are made available to every home through the optical fibre network.

As a first step in this direction, the government has already announced that over 500 locations across East Delhi will be made high-speed Wi-Fi zones by the end of this year allowing access to free internet up to a predetermined limit, daily.

The announcement was made by the Dialogue and Development Commission vice-chairman Ashish Khetan. The free internet service aims to fulfil the minimum internet requirements of delhites.

The implementation of free Wi-Fi in Delhi will be carried out by Department of Information Technology (DIT), which is the nodal agency for the project.

The government has also decided to lay down a common fibre-optic network across the city to make it possible for Delhiites to access the web in “gigabit speed”, Khetan said. The government plans to soon float a tender for the services. “The tender will have details of free data usage limit. But at this point, I can say that the benchmark would be average data usage by an individual per day as defined by TRAI,“Khetan said.

He said the Public Works Department is the nodal agency for the optic-fibre project, which he said was an essential pre-requisite for a smart city. The project, which he described as ‘fibre to home’, will ensure that people manage to access internet in gigabit speed. Such highspeed

• The project will be rolled out in east Delhi area first.

• As per a report from telecom regulator Trai regarding the average consumption of internet, daily free limit per user shall be decided.

• There will be 1,000 hotspot zones with three access points within 571 identified locations of east Delhi area initially.

• These hot-spots will cater to around 1,20,000 people at any given moment.

• 3,000 more access points will be added if needed.

internet was imperative towards bringing “definitive changes” in the areas of education, health, power, water, public transport and security, Khetan said. Providing free Wi-Fi across the national capital was one of the key poll promises of the ruling...