An addition of 12.05 million GSM and CDMA wireless connections were registered in June, with the maximum additions seen in Bihar, which added more than 10 lakh connections in the month.
- Total telephone connections (as of June 2009) is 464.82 million
- Teledensity is now 39.86%
- 6.4 million broadband connections as of May 2009
- 164 ISPs
- 264 village public telephones were added in May 2009
(Read: Q1 India Telecom Data)
E-Governance: Roll Outs Slow Down
Rollout of Internet Common Service Centres in Tamil Nadu, Tripura, West Bengal, Gujarat, scheduled to be completed by June, and Meghalaya (July) are still “being implemented” or nearing completion according to the government’s July status report on national e-governance plan (NeGP) projects. CSCs are kiosks set up in villages that allow denizens to book tickets, apply for jobs, search for market information on crops and sell their produce.
The request for proposal (RFP/ tender) for Andaman and Punjab are yet to be issued while Chandigarh, Goa and Delhi’s NCR have opted out of the plan.
SWAN Deadlines Not Met; To Be Complete By 2010
A glance at the implementation status of another NeGP project – the State Wide Area Network – shows deadlines for completion have not been met. Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Orissa, West Bengal, Puducherry, Sikkim and Uttar Pradesh were scheduled for completion between June -July 2009 but the updated status reflects that they will only witness roll outs by August-October 2009. In fact, the pan-India SWAN roll out was scheduled to be completed by September 2009, but has now been extended to June 2010.
The State Wide Area Network project has been successfully implemented in seven regions – Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Tripura, NCR and Punjab. We searched for a couple of them and found:
- Gujarat’s SWAN
- Kerala’s SWAN
- Andhra Pradesh’s SWAN
- Jharkhand’s JHARNET
Spend
Of the total Rs. 3320.01 crore outlay set aside by the Department of Information Technology (DIT) which is the nodal coordinating agency for the NeGP, only Rs. 886.21 crore has been released so far. DIT covers the entire cost of establishment, operation and maintenance of the SWAN for a period of five years on 100% grant basis.
Tulip Telecom bagged the contracts for West Bengal’s SWAN and Haryana, Assam; United Telecoms Ltd has set up the SWANs for Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Jharkhand as well as Kerala State Wide Area Network. It was also awarded Goa Broad Band Network but Goa has opted out of the project as per the status report.
The status of the State Data Centre project:
Also see: More on NeGP from the Ministry of Information & Technology here.
Related
– Union Budget 2009: Govt Job Portal, STB Duty-5%, Smart Cards, DAVP Waiver, Disinvestment, Railways
– Smart Cards For National ID In India; Need For Single ID? Impact On Mobile Biz
– Internet CSC Rollout Complete In Jharkhand, Haryana, Sikkim; Long Way To Go
– BSNL Revises Rural Kiosk Roll Out; First Kiosk Operational
– SREI Sahaj To Invest Rs 10 Billion On Kiosks; Rural Job Portal Chaakri; Mobile CSCs
