The Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh N Chandrababu Naidu and Cisco Executive Chairman John T Chambers jointly launched AP FiberNet in Visakhapatnam as a part of the NOFN project. Under the project, the Government of Andhra Pradesh will offer low-cost broadband Internet to households and workplaces.
A broadband connection with 15 Mbps speed will be provided at Rs 149 per month and 100 Mbps office connection at Rs 999 per month. These rates are substantially lower than what other Internet service providers currently charge.
Chandra Babu Naidu, Honorable Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, said ‘’Digital transformation has emerged as the most transformative means to ignite sustainable growth and improve society. My vision for the state is to digitally empower every citizen, enhance quality of life of citizens, accelerate economic competitiveness, boost local innovation and become a knowledge and technology hub of the country. Digital Andhra Pradesh is a step towards realising that vision. We envision Andhra Pradesh as a role model for digital transformation for other states to follow. We are happy to partner with Cisco for this transformative project and we believe Cisco’s global experience and expertise in digitization will benefit Andhra Pradesh immensely and catapult the state to the forefront of the digital revolution’’
The AP fiber grid project has been taken up as pilot for the National Optic Fibre Network project of the central govt. The project has been implemented at a cost of Rs 333 crore and it will be gradually rolled out to other districts of the state by July 2016. The AP Fiber Grid includes 22,500 kms of ADSS optical fiber cable, 3.75 lakh electrical poles, and 2449 PoPs in sub-stations. 10,000 government offices, 60,000 schools, and 6,580 primary health centres will benefit from this project.
After the inauguration of the phase one of fiber grid project, Naidu said, “It is my dream to ensure that every household in the State has access to Internet and every family reaps the benefit of it. Internet, video, and telephone services will be provided at the doorstep through the project.”
