Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) recently commissioned additional 10 Gbps International Bandwidth for internet connectivity at Agartala through Cox Bazar, Bangladesh. The development took place on April 21, 2022. With this, users in Agartala will face less network congestion, and the latency of the network connection will also reduce. This will help people living in Meghalaya and other North-Eastern states of the country to experience better internet.
It is worth noting that back on November 26, 2021, BSNL had commissioned one 10 Gbps International Bandwidth in Agartala. With this additional 10G International Bandwidth, the state-run telco will help the people living in the area to experience better internet speeds and overall performance.
USOF Is Providing Subsidy for the Project for Three Years
The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) is providing BSNL with a subsidy or support of 80% for a three year period for the two 10G International Bandwidth commissioned in Agartala.
High-speed internet access will allow the area/region to see the establishment of new software parks and high-speed data centres for business purposes in the North-Eastern states. This will directly benefit the citizens' living, thereby allowing them access to various e-services such as e-health, e-education, e-commerce, e-governance, e-banking, etc.
This will also help in boosting the employment rates and tourism in the area/region.
For the unaware, USOF is a fund set up by the government to help with providing network connectivity in rural and backward regions of India. The fund is under the administration of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
BSNL is hopeful of getting more USOF backed projects in the future as it is the only telco in the country that will be using equipment designed and developed locally. BSNL was working with the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) to develop local network equipment for deploying 4G all over India.
