Indian Railway Telecom vision 2020-another competitor to PSus?

This will be done in collaboration between the RailTel Corporation and private sector companies in a transparent framework. Three proposals are under consideration of ICT expert Committee headed by Sam Pitroda for expanding the RailTel business.

These projects include:

(a) Provision of OFC on balance 15,000 Rkms of Indian Railways network.

(b) Provision of Broadband connectivity to 50,000 Panchayats using RailTel's existing OFC network.

(c) Provision of Broadband services to public on RailTel OFC network on PPP basis.

Proposals may be funded either on PPP basis or partly through Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund kept with Ministry of Communications & Information Technology (Department of Telecommunications) for extending communication services to remote areas of the country.

The 2010-11 document says provision of OFC on balance 15000 Rkms is expected to be completed by 2014. Broadband connectivity to 50000 Panchayats is likely to take off by March 2011 for completion by 2015.

http://telecomlead.com/Indian Railway Telecom vision 2020?