The government has decided to accelerate the optical fibre cable (OFC) connectivity for the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) project from December 31, 2016 to March 31, 2016. In order to achieve the target, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to involve private agencies for OFC connectivity on turnkey basis in 50,000 villages.

At present, the laying of OFC is being undertaken by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), RailTel and PowerGrid. These agencies had only laid 2,292 km pipeline and 358 km cable till June 2014 as against the target of 0.24 million km in Phase I. However, the same agencies have laid 2042 km pipeline and 1,701 km cable in July-August 2014.

Once completed, the OFC connectivity to gram panchayats will allow access of the NOFN to all service providers. Theses service providers can then launch various services in rural areas along with applications like e-health, e-education and e-governance.