HYDERABAD: All the villages in the State will get optical fibre cable (OFC) by December 2019. IT Principal Secretary Jayesh Ranjan informed Chief Secretary SK Joshi that the laying of OFC cables would be completed in 50 per cent villages by March 2019 and the remaining would be completed by December 2019. Once the T-Fibre programme is completed, every household in the State would get internet, Jayesh Ranjan said. The first meeting of the State Level Telecom Committee was held at the Secretariat on Wednesday.
During the meeting, the Chief Secretary directed the officials concerned to prepare plans for the expansion of telecom services, keeping in mind the needs of the people for next the five to ten years. The Chief Secretary directed the service providers to see that the call drops were minimised. For providing better telecom services, the operators should identify the sensitive areas in GHMC and other areas.
While observing that there were 19,789 cell phone towers in the State, the meeting also reviewed the setting up of new towers and providing fibre connectivity. It was also decided to take up awareness programmes to dispel misnomers about the possible radiation of the cell towers. Roads and Buildings principal secretary Sunil Sarma, Panchayat Raj principal secretary Vikas Raj, PCB secretary Satyanarayana Reddy, Mee Seva managing director Venkateswara Rao, officials of BSNL and representatives of private telecom companies were also present at the meeting.