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Connecting rural India to the main stream broadband wagon the BSNL Bharat AirFibre way

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) recently launched the Bharat AirFibre in order to help villages achieve internet connectivity

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DQINDIA Online
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The Indian telecom industry has witnessed both sides of the coin in the last few years. While the earlier part saw them attain the peak of the limelight during the telecom boom, recent times have witnessed the industry facing challenges to the extent of undermining their survival in the sector. A ray of light amidst all these apprehensions is the development of state-owned entity BSNL announcing plans to get on board 1 lakh wireless broadband subscribers from the rural areas. Named Bharat AirFibre, the service will make of the available radio frequency in the unlicensed spectrum band thereby avoiding further expenditure on acquiring spectrum.

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This approach is expected to not only reverse the fortunes of BSNL but also greatly change the lifestyle of the rural folks who will now be able to avail of new-age concepts revolving around telemedicine, edtech, fintech to cite a few. This access to new-age lifestyle-enhancing concepts delivered over a rich experience of wireless broadband services, promises to bring about a transformation that was never witnessed in rural India.

Consider this from the point of view of the following key parameters:

Better education

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Education is one domain that has witnessed further widening of disparity between the urban and rural sections of the society. While the former have been able to avail and leverage from the edtech evolution, the latter still find first access to education as a distinct reality for many.

With the availability of high speed wireless connectivity as part of the gigabit to the home ecosystem, this disparity will be eradicated as rich media interactive virtual education would see the light of the day. Thus the same level of quality education that one avails in urban areas can now be delivered to the rural students as well thereby scoring high on optimum use of resources.

Some of the distinct aspects that such a wireless connectivity equipped ecosystem can overcome include:

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  • Robust and reliable indoor and outdoor Wi-Fi to connect students to the world
  • A low-risk path to integrate IoT networks, students, staff, faculty and guest access
  • Technology that is easy to use and affordable to meet budget constraints
  • A sensible migration path to Wi-Fi6 as tablets and devices make it into the classroom

Increased business and commerce

While the ecommerce revolution continues to flourish in the cities, access to wireless broadband and Wi-Fi is expected to lead to newer avenues of business for the rural segment with sectors such as retail, logistics, agriculture poised for next level of advancements.

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Improved public safety information processing and video surveillance

Policing including remote areas particularly over a video surveillance framework would be possible under the BSNL Bharat AirFibre offerings.

Wider reach of egovernance services

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The availability of connectivity will also give a boost to the uptake of egovernance services including citizen services such as Pradhan Mantri Jan-DhanYojana, payment of electricity bill, Aadhar card/ration card related work. Furthermore, there are plans to build an ecommerce platform focused on rural entrepreneurs thus giving much-needed support to the economic upliftment of the rural population as well as creating job opportunities.

Conclusion

Thus, the BSNL Bharat AirFibre indeed promises to trigger a turnaround in the lifestyle as well as socio-economic quotient of rural India. It has the potential to serve as a global case study on the benefits arising out of high-speed gigabit wireless connectivity.

By Bharat Sharma, Director Presales, India & SAARC Cambium Networks

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