Nov. 5 – India’s BSNL service provider is setting up 30,000 broadband kiosks in rural and remote areas in the next two years on a franchisee basis. The state-owned BSNL is planning to tie with partners to build a network of around 30,000 broadband kiosks and provide services to people at a small fee, and are specifically targeting areas which have no alternative facilities for accessing the internet.
As part of the National Broadband Penetration Program (NBPP), BSNL has partnered with ICT systems integration firm HCL Info systems to accelerate IT proliferation in rural India. The partnership is aimed at providing affordable broadband connectivity to the rural areas. Rural India provides a significant proportion of the nations GDP and it makes sense to provide farmers with better resources to enhance productivity, such as fixing prices for products, improving delivery times and obtaining weather forecasts.
BSNL is looking for four franchise partners, one each to cover the northern, southern, eastern and western regions, however selection will have stringent benchmarking standards to ensure that the partners bring the required operational experience to the table.
The next issue of India Briefing Magazine will cover public-private partnerships and detail the areas where private companies can partner with the government in significant investment projects. The issue will appear next week. Sign up for a complimentary subscription to the magazine and receive an email alert when the issue is published
