Rural schools, colleges to get broadband connectivity

September 23rd, 2009 Rural, urban areas of Ohio seek broadband cashCOLUMBUS, Ohio — State broadband planners say Ohio's unique mix of rural, Appalachian and poor urban communities gives it a strong chance of securing federal stimulus dollars to pay for better Internet access. In the first round of bidding for $7.2 billion in grants, loans and loan guarantees, both in-state and out-of-state groups asked for millions to help underserved populations in the state get connected.

September 15th, 2009 NEW DELHI - India will have over 146,000 km of new roads connecting thousands of villages across the country by 2010-11, Rural Development Minister C.P. Joshi said Tuesday.

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 24th, 2009 NEW DELHI - Union Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal Friday said the government is considering setting up autonomous colleges independent of universities. Addressing a meeting of principal secretaries and secretaries of higher education from various states here, Sibal said: "The government is thinking in terms of allowing the setting up of autonomous colleges." The minister's day-long interaction with the officials was his first initiative to evolve a consensus of the states for reforms in the education sector.

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.

July 6th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government has increased its outlay for rural roads by 57 percent to Rs.12,000 crore ($2.5 billion) in the budget presented by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee Monday in parliament. "Rural roads have been identified as one of the six components of Bharat Nirman with the goal to provide connectivity to all villages with a population of 1,000 (500 in the case of hilly or tribal areas) with an all-weather road by 2009," said a finance ministry statement.

July 1st, 2009 Biden announces rural broadband funding in Pa.WATTSBURG, Pa. — Vice President Joe Biden outlined a $4.7 billion loan and grant program Wednesday to develop the infrastructure needed to deliver broadband, or high-speed, Internet access to areas that are underserved or without access.

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 21st, 2009 NEW DELHI - Bridging the digital divide so that the 'other India' has access to high-speed broadband connectivity and getting villages into the tele-loop are top priorities for Minister of State for Communications and IT Sachin Pilot. "I don't want this ministry to be perceived as elitist.

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.

June 17th, 2009 Survey: The old and poor sign up for broadbandNEW YORK — Some groups that have lagged in signing up for high-speed Internet service, like the elderly, the poor and rural residents, have started to gain on those who have had a head start, according to a new survey. Those conclusions come as the government is set to decide how to spend $7.2 billion in stimulus money on expanding the availability of broadband.

June 4th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The government plans to connect every panchayat to a broadband network in the next three years and expects to reach 40 percent rural tele-density in the next five years. The initiative is part of its ambitious target to drastically improve infrastructure in the villages under its Bharat Nirman (Build India) programme.

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.

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.

February 27th, 2009 JAMMU - Jammu and Kashmir, where road density is one of the lowest in the country, will get over Rs.80 billion (Rs.8,000 crore) from the central government to upgrade its vital road network. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs Thursday sanctioned the amount for upgrading 264 km of national highways as part of the National Highways Development Project (NHDP) North-South corridor.