BHUBANESWAR: The Bhubaneswar Smart City Limited has floated a tender inviting proposal from licensed internet service providers to lease out its underground optical fibre cable (OFC) network.“The request for proposal (RFP) has already been floated for the BSCL fibre optic network and very soon the process will be over so that citizens can get the benefit of the facility,” said BSCL CEO and Managing Director Sanjay Kumar Singh on Friday.
He said over 80 per cent cabling has already been completed. Sources said the move will help BSCL generate revenue apart from providing better internet service to the citizens. As per BSCL data, the Smart City has set a target to lay 680 km of OFC network out of which, work on more than 550 km has been completed, while network is successfully tested for 501 km stretch.
The network infrastructure consists of two types of fibre optics cable including 120 and 12 core cable strands. The 120 core cable strands are used as backbone connectivity for communication network, while the 12 core cable strands are meant for last mile connectivity to smart elements. A BSCL official said the underground OFC network will make the city clutter free.
In order to provide connectivity to single or a group of internet users, the service providers are taking the cable overhead making the place cluttered. However, the underground OFC network will resolve this issue, he said. The optical fibre communication network is being established by BSCL as a part of Smart Solutions project to provide seamless and robust internet connectivity for all the on field smart elements such as CCTV cameras, Public address system (PAS) speaker, Dynamic Message Signboard (DMS), Traffic Violation Detection System (TVDS) and Wi-Fi access point. It is also envisaged to lease out cores of fibre for monetisation and revenue generation by the BSCL.BSCL to lease out OFC network to licensed internet providers