Gandhinagar: Soon, 13,800 villages and around 200 major cities of the state will get free wi-fi at all public places and free or cheap internet at homes and work places as the state government has initiated the process of laying one lakh km long fibre optic network in the state for broadband internet services.Gujarat government, which failed to create fibre optic network under National Fibre Optic Network (NFON) initiated in 2011 by Congress-led UPA government, has now suddenly decided to aggressively go for a complete digitization of all gram panchayats and all government/semi government offices including all schools, colleges, hospitals, public utilities with free wi-fi facilities under Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Digital India Drive.The state government has initiated the formation of a new Special Purpose Vehicle (SPV) company in a joint venture with the government of India for Rs 10,000 crore state fibre optic network which will connect around 13,800 villages and 200 cities with more than one lakh km fibre optic network.The new SPV will ensure the last mile fibre-optic connectivity to every village to provide one gigabyte data connectivity, while cities and districts will get 10 giga byte or more speed connectivity.A total of 12 fibre optic cable networks will be developed. Six cable networks will be auctioned to private players. SPV will be a joint venture between states and the Centre. However, the ownership will rest with the state.Secretary, science and technology department, Dhananjay Dwivedi, said: “We are in the final stage of formation of the SPV for the state-wide fibre optic network. More than one lakh km network will be developed in the next two-three years. The network provides a very high speed broadband internet connectivity to all the government offices and public places in all the villages and cities. The SPV will also auction half of the network capability to private companies which will be asked to develop such a business model that they earn from different services but provide internet free or at very nominal rates. Within a month SPV is likely to be registered.”The private wi-fi service provider will build a business model around advertising revenues (similar to FM radio) while permitting a base level of public internet access to all residents of the gram panchayat and cities irrespective of economic status.