Goa going high-spead broadband

Goa government has signed up agreement with United Telecom Ltd for providing broadband services covering whole state – WOW. Now that’s what a high-tech government means. The estimate of cost is said to be about Rs. 150 crores. And government has strong fact behind taking this step – IT has been state’s top employer and this action will help in creating more employment opportunities leading to 2% growth in GDP.

 

Here are the details about division of bandwidth –

 

State headquarters, district headquarters and taluka headquarters -10Gbps bandwidth

 

Each taluka headquarters to every village panchayat – 1Gbps bandwidth

 

From every village panchayat to every house – 2 to 100 Mbps bandwidth depending on demand by the household

 

Every government office – 1 Gbps bandwidth

 

And the services which are offered include high speed Intranet bandwidth, voice telephony, cable TV/IP TV (that is really making me stir), all government services, banking services, video conferencing etc. The whole project is going to set up in 240 days – 120 for headquarter connectivity and 120 days for panchayat connectivity. Every house in state will be connected by end of December 2007.

 

I know these are the things which no one had expected from Indian government services but then Goa has always been different and out-standing. Even never heard such big scale hi-tech setup in cities like Bangalore (sorry Bangaluru) or Madras (sorry Chennai), leave the states.

 

We people can agitate against destruction of illegal constructions (Delhi) or stand together for changing the name of our home-city (including all the metros) but never came up together raise this country in terms of technology…have you ever heard of Indians protesting for making entire state broadband-enabled…or about providing one PC (if not laptop) per adult or for equipping the government sector offices with computers…or against taking down the high charges imposed by few leading broadband service providers (instead we will like to go for national level salary hike strike)  – the subjects which I & Sid were discussing today.

 

From charges, let me tell you about the charges of this service. I am sure, you will be amazed. Even Bangalore or Madras can’t beat them. The charges wouldn’t be more than Rs 270 per month for intra-net bandwidth and Rs 252 per month for Internet bandwidth. Now dare to beat that.

 

Here is the news –

 

Agreement signed to set up Goa Broadband Network

 

The government today signed an agreement with M/s United Telecom Ltd for establishment of Goa Broadband Network across the state at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore.

 

This project of the government aims at providing better telecom connectivity and network for better governance.

 

Mr M N Rao, director of information technology on behalf of the Goa government and Dr P Raja Mohan Rao, president and chief executive officer of UTL, on behalf of consortium, signed the agreement.

 

The Chief Minister, Mr Pratapsing Rane and the Information Technology Minister, Mr Dayanand Narvekar were present on the occasion.

 

Addressing reporters at the agreement signing ceremony, Mr Narvekar said that IT was number one employment provider at the moment and this project would also create more job avenues, leading to 2 per cent increase in gross domestic project. He also said the people of the state would benefit from the project as they can now avail information and certificate at their doorsteps. The IT Minister informed that the project would be implemented on a public-private partnership model and the government would not invest upfront. Technology partner would invest upfront and recover from the government, citizens and business based on the services offered.

 

The Chief Minister said that Goa has to change and that his government was working towards changing the face of the state. He observed that the government wants to create a knowledge-based society to take Goa to greater heights. He said the government would make necessary arrangement to supply uninterrupted power supply for the project.

 

Mr Narvekar informed that state headquarters; district headquarters and taluka headquarters would be connected with 10Gbps bandwidth under the project and each taluka headquarters to every village panchayat with 1Gbps bandwidth.

 

From every village panchayat to every house would be connected with 2 to 100 Mbps bandwidth depending on demand by the household while every government office would be connected with 1 Gbps bandwidth.

 

Among the services to be offered under the project are high speed Intranet bandwidth, voice telephony, cable TV/IP TV, educational content, healthcare services, entertainment, all government services, banking services, video conferencing, etc. A consortium of three companies, including UTL, UT Starcom India telecom Pvt Ltd and M/s Railtel would implement the project.

 

The IT Minister said that project linking the state headquarters, district headquarters and taluka headquarters would be completed within 120 days from today (the date of signing the agreement) and thereafter every village panchayat within 120 days there on.

 

The project connecting every house primarily through optic fiber cable and through wireless wherever not possible is to be completed by end of December 2007, he added.

 

The government has put limits on the charges to be collected by the service provider. The charges would not be more than Rs 270 per month for providing intra-net bandwidth and Rs 252 per month for providing Internet bandwidth, informed Mr Narvekar.

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