Every panchayat to be linked to broadband network

October 1st, 2009 NEW DELHI - A woman panchayat leader's fight against corruption, another illiterate panchayat leader's endeavour to make education a reality for her village - stories of struggle and commitment, drawn out of the lives of seven women panchayat leaders were put together in a book that was released Thursday. Titled "Sarpanch Sahib: Changing the face of India" the book has been compiled by well known authors Manju Kapur, Indira Maya Ganesh, Sonia Falerio, Kalpana Sharma, Tishani Doshi, Abhilasha Ojha and edited by Manjima Bhattacharjya.

September 12th, 2009 CHENNAI - The government has decided to provide broadband connectivity to 5,000 schools and 20,000 colleges in rural and semi-urban areas to promote e-learning, Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot said here Saturday. "We are holding discussions with the finance ministry to work out the modalities and the funding required for this project," Pilot told reporters on the sidelines of an IT conference, jointly organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) and the Tamil Nadu government.

July 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's fixed-line telephone market will grow by 22 percent to reach Rs.5,500 crore (Rs.55 billion/$1.1 billion) by 2013, says a report by IT research and advisory firm Gartner. "The Indian fixed-line market will see growth from broadband and Internet access sectors, which will together grow at the rate of 22 percent to reach Rs.55 billion by 2013," the report released here Monday said.

July 26th, 2009 ADDIS ABABA - A long-expected fibre-optic cable linking southern and eastern Africa to global telecommunications networks via India and Europe has gone live with high expectations it will lower the cost of telecommunications in Africa. Its switch-on date was delayed for a month after threats by Somali pirates along the Indian Ocean route from India to Kenya disrupted cable installation plans.

July 10th, 2009 NEW DELHI - In a bid to improve governance at the grass roots level, the government has decide to extend broadband connectivity to all villages by 2012, Minister of State for Communications and IT Gurudas Kamat said Friday. "Out of about 2.5 lakh gram (village) panchayats across the country, 30,000 have been provided with broadband connectivity, Kamat said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.

June 22nd, 2009 GANGTOK - Union Minister of State for Information Technology Sachin Pilot Monday said Sikkim has potential to emerge as an IT and BPO hub and assured that all 450 villages in the state will have telephone and broadband connectivity soon. "The exchanges in all the villages of the state's 26 blocks will be brought under the telecom and broadband network soon," Pilot told IANS here.

June 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Tata Teleservices has teamed up with ECI Telecom, an Israel-based networking infrastructure solutions provider, to offer India's fastest broadband access network till date, the Indian telecom operator said Wednesday. In a statement, Tata Teleservices said ECI's network solution would support a connectivity speed of up to 18 megabit per second (Mbps), a unit to measure broadband speed.

May 26th, 2009 NEW DELHI - UTStarcom, a US-based network solutions provider, Tuesday said it will support state-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to roll out IPTV (Internet protocol television) services. UTStarcom's existing contract with the Indian firm has been extended for this purpose, the company said in a statement.

April 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bharti Airtel has pioneered 16 Mbps broadband - the fastest wireline broadband on DSL in the country. This service, powered by Airtel's Carrier Ethernet Network, will be initially available in the cities of Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bangalore with phased roll-out to additional cities of Hyderabad, Pune, Mumbai and Kolkata.

April 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bharti Airtel Monday launched 16 Mbps broadband, the fastest wireline broadband on digital subscriber loop(DSL) in the country, in select cities. 'We will be able to offer 16 Mbps broadband to 70 percent of the households in Delhi and NCR (national capital region), Chennai and Bangalore,' Airtel Telemedia Services joint president K.

March 3rd, 2009 NEW DELHI - India's telecom watchdog Monday asked internet service providers (ISPs) and telecom operators to ensure availability of the minimum required bandwidth in their networks. 'Operators must ensure availability of the minimum required bandwidth in their network as per the maximum contention ratio suggested by the regulator for different services based on the number of customers,' the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said in its guidelines issued for the service providers.

February 27th, 2009 NEW DELHI - State-run telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), in association with US-based WiMax solutions provider SOMA networks, Thursday launched wireless broadband services in Gujarat. A BSNL statement said the wireless broadband initiative would spread the expansion of broadband connections in the country.

February 25th, 2009 NEW DELHI - You may have to wait a little more longer than expected before you start paying less to access the Internet through a high speed broadband network, as the telecom watchdog is yet to come out with the guidelines on the next generation network (NGN) that will enable telecom operators to offer better services at lower rates. Telecom operators have been asked to submit their comments on NGN by March 10, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said here Wednesday.

February 2nd, 2009 NEW DELHI - Minister of State for Communications and IT Jyotiraditya Scindia Tuesday said the government has accepted the calling card proposal, which would offer flexibility to consumers to choose their carrier for making long-distance calls. 'The calling cards for both STD and ISD calls have been accepted, making it flexible for consumers to switch their carriers for long distance calls,' Scindia said at a conference here.

January 11th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Eight eminent senior citizens including national tennis champion Sumant Misra, cabinet secretary B.G. Deshmukh and prominent Bharatanatyam exponent Saroja Vaidyananthan were conferred the Vayoshrestha awards by the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar here Monday.