You must be joking right? When seamless broadband connectivity is a dream even for the urban population, how is the broadband going to spread to the rural areas with little or no infrastructure in place.

But, BSNL is out there to change the notion and kick start a project to have the rural sector connected like never before.

BSNL is planning to tie with partners to build a network of around 30,000 broadband kiosks and provide services to people at a small fee. They are targeting areas which have no alternative facilities for accessing the internet.

BSNL has making the right steps in the direction too. ICT systems integration firm HCL Info systems have partnered on the National Broadband Penetration Program (NBPP), a nationwide initiative to accelerate IT proliferation in rural India. The partnership is aimed at providing affordable broadband connectivity to the rural areas.

Come to think of it, rural India has a meaty contribution to the GDP and it makes sense to provide the stakeholders with better resources to enhance productivity.

It is however difficult to buy into the fact that the plan will not be marred into the usual bureaucracy like any other initiatives coming from the government. Most of the times, the projects are conceptualized and announcements made, but the execution seldom happens the right way.

State-run BSNL will set up 30,000 broadband kiosks in rural and remote areas in the next two years on a franchisee basis. (Source: ET)

But, this time around, the conceptualization has some salient features which might just make it work

• The partnership with HCL should ensure that one important of the infrastructure will be taken care of by a professional (private) company.
• The franchise model will provide a motivation for the stakeholders to ensure that the project sees the light of the day. The franchise owners will try to work towards providing the much needed maintenance and support.
• BSNL is going to feature 4 partners for 4 zone (North, East, South, West) with one sector taken care of by one partner. This should decrease the operation and management overhead for BSNL.

BSNL is betting on the franchise model and possibly create a self sustaining model as a result. However, the partner selection will need to have stringent benchmarking standards to ensure that the partners bring the required operational experience to the table.

All in all, a great initiative which if achieves half of its projected targets will go a long way in connecting rural India to rest of the world. Imagine a farmer logging into the internet to see the weather forecast and plan his activity accordingly.

The dream of a connected India will however come true only if the project gets executed well and is affordable enough for everyone to make effective use of it.

Only then would BSNL would be able to justify its Advertising mantra,

“Hindustan Bol raha he”

What do you think? Will BSNL be able to pull it off and connect the rural India?

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