Missed targets in 1.0, National Broadband Mission 2.0 in the works

The department of telecommunications (DoT) is working on the next leg of the National Broadband Mission to improve connectivity, quality of services, increase broadband penetration, and infrastructure in the country.

Though the current National Broadband Mission has run its five-year cycle, the targets have not been achieved. Therefore, the new mission will aim at setting realistic targets with regard to tower fiberisation, laying infrastructure for optical fiber cable (OFC), and improving broadband speeds, officials said.

The plan is at the approval stage at the moment. The discussions are going on with regard to the focus areas, investments to be made by the government, and responsibilities of the private sector to improve the connectivity, especially in far-flung areas so that there is no digital divide, officials said.

Once approved, the National Broadband Mission 2.0, is likely to come into effect from April 1, 2025.

Under the Broadband India Mission launched in 2019, the government had set a target to achieve 100% connectivity to villages by 2022. However, the same is around 95% at present, according to the government data.

Going by the funding plan of $100 billion for investment in installing towers, optical fiber infrastructure, and other resources, set under the mission in 2019, the government had said it will be contributing around 10% of the same ($10 billion) through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). However, the overall disbursements from USOF, in the last five years, show that the government has spent around Rs 30,000 crore (about $3.5 billion).

There have been missed targets on the tower fiberisation front also. The government had targeted to have a tower fiberisation of 70%, however, the same is at 45%, according to the data by DoT till October.

According to officials, higher capital expenditure requirements on the part of telecom operators, continuous regulatory hurdles, charges at the state government level, and change in technology are some of the issues owing to which the tower fiberisation targets could not be achieved.

Tower fiberisation means connecting mobile towers to high-capacity fibre-optic network. This enables high-speed data transfer between the towers and the core network, ensuring low latency and high bandwidth.

Officials said telecom operators have started looking at low cost wireless solutions such as wide-band microwave links for backhaul connectivity that use high-frequency radio waves to transmit data wirelessly. Therefore, in the new leg of National Broadband Mission, target for the same is expected to be reconsidered.

Similarly, the total number of mobile towers installed stands at 811,716 as of October end, compared to 1.5 million as set under the mission. As compared to the target of laying 5 million km of optical fiber, the government has laid about 4.19 million km of optical fiber, according to data by DoT. Financial Express