Date: 17/07/2009

BSNL awarded US$77 million contract to Sterlite for building FTTH network

To implement BSNL plans of FTTH networks in 25 cities spanning all over India by year 2012, BSNL has awarded Sterlite Technologies a contract worth Rs 372 Crore (US$ 77 million).

To quickly wire every Indian household and business to a robust and wideband telecom grid, BSNL is opting for multiple methods, which include both wireless and wireline. In some aspect FTTH is more secure and reliable compared WiMAX and any such wireless technologies. FTTH has the capability to pipe in every type of digital content with less bandwidth bottlenecks. Mr. Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL, indicated that up to 5% of all Indian households could have FTTH by 2011 and IPTV would be one of the key drivers for uptake of FTTH.

The cabling related service disrupt problems what typical BSNL copper line customer faces may become worse due to the cable cut complexities involved with optical cables. But if well maintained, wireline can be more reliable and satisfying than wireless broadband data services.