GramNet Wi-Fi To Connect All Indian Villages: Sanjay Dhotre

The Government today reiterated its commitment in providing Wi-Fi in all the villages through GramNet with connectivity between 10mbps to 100 mbps speed. Delivering a keynote address at the 36^th Foundation Day celebrations of C-DOT here, Minister of State for Communications Mr. Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre said that BharatNet also plans to provide 1 GBPS connectivity, which can be expanded up to 10 GBPS and C-DOT’s XGS-PON launched today will help in a great way to achieve this. He said, when India is celebrating 150^thBirth Anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, this will be a real tribute to Bapu, who had dreamt of a self-reliant Indian village.

Mr Dhotre said that C-Sat-Fi technology of C-DOT will empower Indian People, especially in rural and remote areas as telephone and Wi-Fi facilities, will be available in all corners of the country on any mobile phone. He said that the new technology will bring people in remote areas to mainstream by connecting them through satellites, where fiber is difficult to be laid and internet is not available.

The Minister launched C-DOT’s latest innovations, “C-Sat-Fi (C-DOTSatellite WiFi”, “XGSPON (10 G Symmetrical Passive Optical Network)” and “C-DOT’s Interoperable Set Top Box (CiSTB).

Speaking on the occasion, the Executive Director of C-DOT Mr Vipin Tyagi said that C-Sat-Fi (C-DOT Satellite WiFi) is based on the optimal utilization of wireless and satellite communication to extend connectivity to the unserved areas including the remote islands and difficult terrains. Besides offering the ease of deployment, the solution is ideally suited to addressing disasters and emergencies when no other means of communication are available, he added. This cost-effective solution does not require the expensive Satellite Phones and can work on any WiFi enabled phone.

Similarly, C-DOT’s XGSPON (10 G Symmetrical Passive Optical Network) is an effective solution to fulfil the rapidly increasing demands of high network speeds emanating from the new dimensions of user applications like IPTV, HD Video Streaming, Online Gaming and host of other cloud based services that necessitate the seamless availability of high bandwidth.

The third innovation, C-DOT’s Interoperable Set Top Box (CiSTB) will prove to be a boon to the dissatisfied customers who cannot change their Cable TV operator in view of the recurring costs of setting and installing the physical infrastructure afresh. Based on a portable smart card like a mobile SIM, this solution will revolutionize the experience of the Cable TV operators by offering them a high degree of choice, ease and convenience without having to replace the once installed STB.

The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), the premier Telecom R&D centre of the Government of India is observing its 36th Foundation Day celebrations on 26-27 August, 2019. This year too, continuing the same tradition, C-DOT held a technical conference as part of GB Meemamsi Lecture Series 2019, wherein several field experts, Telecom veterans and academicians from around the world shared their experiences and discussed innovative ways to address the numerous issues and challenges faced by the technology developers, policy makers and end-users in the new era defined by the all-pervasive “Internet of Things (IoT)”. The conference was jointly organized by C-DOT and European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) under the aegis of European Union (EU) funded project on “India-EUCooperation on ICT- Related Standardization, Policy and Legislation” in association with Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI).

The inaugural session of the celebrations was graced by Hon’ble Minister of State for Communications Shri Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre, Mr. Luis Jorge Romero, Director General, ETSI and H.E. Raimund Magis, Charge d’Affaires, European Union delegation to India and several senior officials of the Ministry of Telecommunications.

Besides, insightful deliberations on a wide range of contemporary subjects spanning the critical need of IoT/M2M standardization and its impact on digital economy with special emphasis on oneM2M which has emerged as the Global Standard for IoT/M2M, various security and data protection aspects related to IoT/M2M deployments, diverse applications and use cases of IoT/M2M, the upcoming trends of LiFi and WiFi 6 and a session dedicated to the standardized implementation of Smart Cities. This conference becomes very topical and important as TEC is currently in the process of deciding on oneM2M as the national standard of IoT/M2M.