India today launched four world class Broadband products by C-DOT. With this India has become at par with all other developed countries in the world in respect of quality telecommunication services and effective penetration of advanced broadband based services. Union Minister for Communication and IT, Ravi Shankar Prasad while launching the new products indigenously developed by C-DOT today stated that the NDA Government is committed to bring all 2.5 lakh villages under broadband services and enhance internet penetration from 300 million to 500 million within 2 and half years. Prasad launched the products in the presence of his Kenyan counterpart, Cabinet Secretary, ICT in a function organized at C-DOT Campus, New Delhi. Shri Prasad further stated that the new products have been launched with an aim to provide an advanced digital infrastructure for digital India Initiative launched by the PM Shri Narendra Modi earlier this week. He further stated that Digital India initiative is bound to bring governance available in the palm of every Indian. It is more for the poor, underprivileged and the marginal people like masons and carpenters etc. In fact, Digital India is a transformational programme and a dream to bring a positive change. The initiative would also go a long way in digital empowerment of the people of India. The initiative launched by the Prime Minister would make India developed, globally credible, affluent and would further synch with Make in India and Skill India programme. Shri Prasad while elaborating the importance of skill development stated that there are ample opportunities of earning in mobile maintenance profession as the number of mobile sets are surging day by day.
Prasad appreciated the role of C-DOT in transforming the telecommunication scenario in the country, especially in the rural India. C-DOT has to render significant contribution in providing broadband coverage across the nation. He also appreciated the products developed by the C-DOT and stated that the long distance Wi Fi is going to solve the problem of distance, whereas Solar powered Wi Fi would do away the dependence on the power availability. Shri Prasad stated that the Next Generation Network technology is quite important for the service providers for converging landline/ mobile/ data network. The MTNL and the BSNL are going to be benefitted as they would be able to transform their landline network into the most advanced network. He called upon C-DOT to come out with more advanced innovative products in order to ensure foolproof telecom services apart from lending a hand in ensuring digital literacy across the country in respective local languages. The Union Minister further stated that digital connectivity leads to good governance. Shri Prasad also stated that the C-DOT products are great innovative and dependable but I would be happier if the products are savvy and are used by more people. He exhorted the private sector to go for C-DOT products on large scale as these have been developed after a sustained research and analysis for which the Government invested a substantial amount keeping in view the need to match with the fast changing world.
Kenyan Cabinet Secretary, ICT, Dr.Fred Marang’I Okengo stated that his country has been following Digital India very closely. The launch of the new C-DOT products has testified the audacity of the ongoing innovative programs. He stressed the need of focus on the IT jointly by both the countries. The visiting dignitary stated that our country is keen to pursue the capacity building and is committed to expand the innovative programs with constructive cooperation. He described the ICT initiatives as game changers in making the lives of the people purposeful and comfortable. While appreciating the broadband network developed by the C-DOT he stated that it would go a long way in unlocking the potentials of our people in transforming the country. He also stressed upon the M Money and M Paisa programs which enable transparent and fast transfers. He described his country as an ICT hub and a gateway to Africa. The visiting dignitary assured a broader, detailed, effective collaboration in the field of communication and IT.
He expressed his keenness in transfer of new C-DOT products to his country and sought assistance of India to find out feasible ways so that these could be launched in Kenya. On this occasion, the Telecom secretary Shri Rakesh Garg, in his key note address expressed hope that the private sector would pick the C Dot products. He added that the new products have been tested prior to their launch. He called upon the C Dot to design the products that suits Indian requirements and conditions. The next generation land line network would not only revolutionize the basic telephony but would upgrade the entire landline services. He added that presently all gram panchayats are connected with broadband, the government is committed to connect all gram panchayats in the country with broadband.
Our efforts are in the way of taking dream of Digital India further, said Shri Vipin Tyagi, Executive Director, C-DOT while delivering his welcome address. He also stated that the C-DOT has been innovating with an aim to empower the weaker strata of the society and developing indigenous products to facilitate continuous telecom up-gradation. He said that technology is big enabler and broadband is big leveler. Roti, Kapda, Makan and Broadband are the basic needs of the human being. Two Wi-Fi products launched by C-DOT viz. Long Distance Wi-Fi and Solar powered Wi-Fi address the connectivity problem of rural areas, hilly terrain, highways, dense vegetation, tunnels etc. They are also suited for greenfield projects like smart cities, areas where there is little/no grid supply, emergency situations, Disaster Management Networks etc. C-DOT has also developed a light weight Green Power Source to make the solution self-sustainable. Using this solution, reach of BharatNet can be increased beyond Panchayats to the remotest part of country.
100 Gbps OFC link system called “Suteevra” addresses the telco’s requirement of optimizing communication transport backbone in smart cities, IT parks, Industrial Complexes, Inter City Traffic, Data Centres etc. It offers ease of deployment, lesser shell space & lower power consumption, and saves on the high cost of laying fiber for each individual user. Further, SUTEEVRA is capable of serving multiple applications and protocols ranging from the Data, Storage, TDM and Video networks. C-DOT NGN in MTNL network is advanced IP based network which is designed to replace existing TDM network due to ease in introduction of newer services. NGN provides a centralized remote control to the operators to manage the exchanges thereby providing better services to the end subscribers. Besides, there are considerable savings in the power consumptions with the introduction of the much smaller and low power consuming equipment. All interfaces and various types of gateways have been indigenously developed by C-DOT. The solution has been deployed in the MTNL network at Delhi and Mumbai for supporting migration to IP for 1000 subscribers at each location. The IMS compliant NGN Core has been installed at Minto Road (New Delhi) and Prabhadevi Building (Mumbai). The subscribers are distributed at the Hauz Khas and Worli exchanges in Delhi and Mumbai respectively. With this successful trial, MTNL can think of launching various services (voice, video and data) through various access modes based on IP. Also, it is now possible to shift existing 3.5 million landline subscribers of MTNL to IP based network.