Shillong, Dec 17: In a major step towards bridging the digital divide and improving public service delivery through high-speed internet connectivity, particularly in remote areas of Garo Hills, Meghalaya government has launched the “Fibre to Home Broadband for Tura town” under the Last Mile Connectivity Project (LMC).
The ambitious project was launched by Meghalaya Chief Minister Conrad K. Sangma on Tuesday virtually from Shillong. The commissioning of the LMC at Deputy Commissioner’s Office will ensure that the citizens of Tura Town avail the benefit of reliable Fibre to The Home (FTTH) broadband through a local Internet Service Provider (ISP), who will procure broadband in bulk from PowerTel.
Launching the project, the chief minister said that the government is committed to provide all government services to the citizen in an easy, transparent, reliable and cost-effective manner. He said that the government is putting adequate thrust towards increasing the internet penetration both for the citizens in the State and for the remotest Government offices in Meghalaya.
The LMC project is using the available Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) infrastructure and powered by the International Internet Gateway (IIG) project. The IIG will aid the Tech Park initiatives in the state by bringing low latency, low cost, high speed and secured bandwidth to the organizations operating in the Tech Parks.
Informing on the challenges of underground optical fiber cables (OFCs), the chief minister said, “The state government is leveraging the optical ground wire (OPGW) of the Meghalaya Power Transmission Corporation Ltd. (MePTCL) in partnership with PowerGrid Teleservices Ltd, to overcome the challenge and provide high speed internet services.”
In OPGW, the optical fiber is placed on the ground wire of the overhead high-voltage transmission line to form a fiber-optic communication network on the transmission line. MePTCL has about 665 Km of OPGW laid on its transmission lines and 225Km lines are under deployment. One pair of OPGW was leased by PowerTel from MePTCL exclusively for the Last Mile Connectivity project.
“OPGW will form the robust backbone on which Last Mile Connectivity (LMC) will be provided to the grassroot users in the State. The government intends to extend OFC connectivity from the OPGW backbone to every Block Head-quarter (BHQ), Sub-Divisional Head-Quarters (SDHQ) and District Head-Quarters (DHQ) and other offices,” the chief minister said.
“Fibre to the Home (FTTH) connectivity to households, will be extended from the different government office HQs and from MePTCL stations in collaboration with local ISP’s and entrepreneurs,” the chief minister added.
In Phase-I of the LMC project, 30 Administrative HQs will be connected. These include 9 DHQs, 1 SDHQ and 20 BHQs.
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