Broadband
BharatNet project will boost rural broadband services: Telecom Minister
NEW DELHI: There are 412.60 million broadband connections in the country of which 106.52 million are in rural areas, Communication Minister Manoj Sinha said yesterday.
Sinha said in the Lok Sabha or India’s Lower House of Parliament that broadband services in rural areas have seen good progress on the back of substantial development in the telecommunication sector.
“The number of broadband connections in the country as on 31 March 2018 stood at 412.60 million out of which rural broadband connections are 106.52 million, which constitutes 25.82 per cent of total connections,” he said, adding that the government is implementing the flagship BharatNet project to link each of the 250,000 gram panchayats or the local village administrations in the country through optical fibre network.
This is the largest rural connectivity project of its kind and is the first pillar of the Digital India programme, he said.
Phase-I of the project has been completed in December 2017 and over 100,000 village administrations have been made service-ready. Phase II of BharatNet project, which aims to connect 150,000 gram panchayats (GPs) through high speed broadband, has been launched and is targeted to be completed by March 2019.
The optical fibre being laid under the BharatNet project is expected to be the primary means for internet backhaul, which can be leveraged to service the telecommunications towers in the rural areas. This, in turn, will give a boost to mobile internet availability and adoption in the rural areas.
As part of BharatNet project, the last mile connectivity, through Wi-Fi or any other suitable broadband technology is being provided at all the GPs in the country. At each GP, on an average five access points are envisaged that include three points for government institutions and two for public places.
Overall mobile Internet penetration in the country has seen major changes in the last four years. The total number of Base Transceiver Stations (BTS) across the country has increased from 790,000 in 2014 to more than 18,00000 as of March 2018 of which 905,000 BTS are of 4G. The increased number of BTS has resulted in greater adoption of mobile internet across the country, the Minister said.
Broadband
ACT Fibernet elevates Aditya Singh to chief customer experience officer
Former senior vp to drive service, retention and delivery revamp
BENGALURU: ACT Fibernet has elevated Aditya Singh to chief customer experience officer, effective 1 January, 2026, as the broadband provider seeks to tighten its grip on service quality in an increasingly competitive market.
Singh, who previously served as senior vice-president – customer experience and loyalty at group level, will now join the executive committee and lead the company’s end-to-end customer transformation agenda.
The move gives him oversight of customer service, customer retention and service delivery, alongside a broader mandate to strengthen network resilience and field operations. The company said the reshuffle underlines its intent to deliver a “consistent, seamless and superior” experience to its 2.3m subscribers across more than 30 cities.
Headquartered in Bengaluru, ACT Fibernet, the consumer-facing brand of Atria Convergence Technologies Limited, is one of India’s largest wired internet service providers. It has built its pitch on high-speed connectivity and responsive customer support, at a time when fibre roll-outs and price wars are redrawing the broadband map.
In a statement, Singh said he was “deeply honoured” to take on the expanded brief and join the executive committee as the company sharpens its focus on simplifying customer touchpoints and turning subscribers into brand advocates.
The elevation signals a clear priority: in a crowded fibre market, customer experience is fast becoming the decisive battleground.
