Government opts WiMax for CSC

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Government of India has opted for WiMax technology to connect rural India for the common service centres, as part of the National e-Governance Plan (NeGP).

According to informed sources, the government will be investing Rs 750 crore to connect about 1,000 blocks in the country.

“From these blocks there will be an over-the-air point-to-point connectivity given to the common service centres in the villages surrounding the blocks, in the first phase. One base-station will be set-up in each block to provide the P2P access. After the successful implementation the rest of the 5,000 blocks will also be connected using WiMax technology,” the source said.

State-owned telecom operator BSNL will be implementing the project, which will be funded by the Department of Information Technology. Universal Service Obligatory (USO) fund will be contributing for connecting the rest of 5,000 blocks.

Tenders for selecting the implementation partner will be issued in the next couple of months, after the defence forces release their excess and unutilized spectrum.

The source said that the government had been withholding its tendering process due to the availability of spectrum and the ongoing spectrum tussle between operators and the government.

BSNL had earlier announced rolling of WiMax services to 25,000 villages across India and was reportedly to call for expression of interest from interested players.  This was also stalled due to the spectrum fiasco.

Indications are that the government had opted for WiMax for providing wireless broadband access to the common service centres due to the diverse geography of the country, where it will be near to impossibility to provide fibre-connectivity in the rural areas. After the implementation of the WiMax project, the government is looking at taking citizen services such in the areas of education and health.