NEW DELHI: The Centre has chosed communications infrastructure major Hughes Communications India to implement a project that will connect 5,000 remote village panchayats in border and Naxal-affected areas, as well as in island territories, with satellite broadband. This project is being undertaken under the larger BharatNet project and is to be completed by March 2021.
According to a statement from the government, the 5,000 gram panchayats are spread across the north-eastern states, including Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, and areas such as the Galwan Valley in Eastern Ladakh and other locations in Andaman and Nicobar and Lakshadweep. These areas lack terrestrial connectivity, such as optical fiber or cable, which was the reason for the satellite route, Hughes said in a statement.
Under the agreement, Hughes India will enable Internet service for each gram panchayat using capacity from ISRO’s GSAT-19 and GSAT-11 satellites with the Hughes Jupiter System, the de facto standard for satellite broadband implementations, in use on more than 40 satellites worldwide. The government aims to connect all 2.5 lakh village panchayats in the country with high speed broadband services by August 2021.