With the turn of the decade as the country was slowly beginning to wake up to the possibilities of a world connected by an information superhighway, the then United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government at the Centre launched the National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) initiative to connect all 250,000 gram panchayats (GPs) in the country to the internet.

As part of the scheme, the government envisaged 100 Mbps connectivity to all the GPs and non-discriminatory access of the government network to service providers like internet service providers (ISPs), cable operators and other content providers.

Existing fibre cables of public sector undertakings (PSUs) – BSNL, RailTel and PowerGrid, were to be utilised within the NOFN scheme with incremental fibre cables to be laid wherever necessary. Although as part of the UPA’s plan 300,000 km of optical fibre network was to be laid until 2014, only a dismal 350 km could be laid.

Post national elections in 2014, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government rechristened the NOFN as BharatNet and set up a new plan for the scheme’s implementation. BharatNet was formulated as a collaborative project between the Centre and states, with a three-phased implementation.

– Under the first phase, which ended in December 2017, broadband connectivity to 1 lakh GPs was planned with underground optic fibre cable (OFC) lines.

– Under the second phase, to be finished by March 2019, all 250,500 GPs are to be connected with a mix of underground cables, radio and satellite media and aerial OFCs, with last mile connectivity to be ensured through Wi-Fi hotspots.

– The third and last phase, between 2019 and 2023 will focus on future-proofing the network and ensuring quality of service.

As of 22 April 2018, the government had ensured broadband connectivity to 108,019 GPs, (excluding data from Andhra Pradesh) with the central government contributing over Rs 11,000 crore towards the scheme in phase one.

The state-wise number of service-ready GPs until 20 April 2018 is as follows,