Andhra Pradesh will reach a major milestone in taking the Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) closer to the tribals with GiriNet. The government has chalked out plans to provide Internet, TV and telephone facilities in all gram panchayats of the tribal areas by December.
The Tribal Welfare department has already mapped the 1kv current/power poles there. The GPS (global positioning system) information of all the poles and the respective substations that control them etc have been captured. The poles would carry Internet cables too and 11,789 tribal habitations are likely to be covered, officials say.
High-speed broadband
The department has planned to provide the fibernet services through the Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL)-phase-II. Andhra Pradesh is one of the States that has evinced interest in utilising the BBNL services. The project is being rolled out with partial funding from the Central government to provide high-speed broadband in the gram panchayats. When contacted, Tribal Welfare Department Director Gandham Chandrudu said, “The target is to connect the tribal areas with the rest of the world.”
There are 3,366 gram panchayats in the tribal areas in East and West Godavari, Guntur, Krishna, Nellore, Prakasam, Srikakulam, Vizianagaram, Visakhapatnam districts . The GiriNet would connect the habitations by latching on to the nearest APSFL/BBNL network. It can offer mobile services, he says.
Mr. Chandrudu said the BBNL network would be utilised from the BSNL exchange to the point of presence (PoP) to connect to the APSFL core network services.
The government would use Free Space Optical Communication (FSOC) links if the fiber grid connectivity was not possible. Chintur, Rampachodavaram, Paderu, Parvathipuram, KR Puram and Sethampet were some of the ITDA regions that would be covered, he said.
The APSFL and the X Development Centre LLC, formerly known as Google X, have entered into an MoU in December last year.
