Some of the major Indian Telecom companies are finally seeing some action on the expansion of their fibre optic cable network. Idea Cellular, Aircel and Powertel (The telecom focused BU of PoweGrid) have rolled out massive expansion plans.
The currents stats of fibre optic network for these 3 are -
| S.no. | Company | Existing Network | Proposed expansion to |
| 1. | Aditya Birla Group (Idea Cellular) | 38,000kms | 45,000kms |
| 2. | Aircel (Maxis) | 10,000kms | 25,000kms |
| 3. | Powergrid (Powertel) | 20,000kms | 31,000kms |
The companies hope that besides satisfying their own communication needs they would also be able to cater to overseas telecom operators such as British Telecom and SingTel who provide enterprise telephony services to corporate customers by offering connectivity between India and other countries through undersea cable networks.
However the intercity network is dominated by the biggies such as BSNL, Reliance Communications, Bharti Airtel and PowerGrid. The foreign companies have to rely on them to provide the last mile inter-city connectivity. Optical fibres are used by telecom companies to transmit telephone signals, Internet communication and cable television signals.
The biggies now are interestingly focusing on building under seas cable with a total investment of $4 billion by 2010.
Reader would be interested to know that BSNL has the largest optical fibre cable network in the country, comprising at least 600,000 route km covering all state capitals and district headquarters.
However all this is nothing compared to the plans of NOFA (National Optic Fibre Authority).
Which would be a offshoot of BSNL and have authority to lay over 12 lakh km of optic fibre throughout the country, spending a massive Rs 40,000 crore. This would be backed by employee strength of 2 lakh individuals which is about 66% of BSNL’S total employee strength.
Also giving stiff competition to the private telecom Companies is the railways, under the guidance of Sam Pitroda (the man behind the telecom revolution) who will lead an expert committee to assist railways in using the 30,000 km fibre optic cable network which is currently under Railtel .
Currently this network provides its services to Airtel, Vodafone, Aircel, IDEA and Reliance.
Well the increasing competition and investment can only mean good news for the consumers who would be at the receiving end, be it good and reliable services or cheap cost.
