State-owned telecom firm BSNL has signed an agreement with Power Grid Corporation of India for improving connectivity in the north eastern region including Sikkim.
The pact was signed yesterday in the presence of BSNL Board Director A N Rai and PGCIL COO (Telecom) Ashwani Jain.
The agreement envisages provisioning of bandwidth on optical fibre laid over the high tension electric transmission network of PGCIL.
A total 34 links comprising of multiple 10 Gbps capacity telecom circuits will be commissioned within 18 months.
"This will provide redundancy to existing network of BSNL which comprises of optical fibre laid underground along national and state highways. The agreement will be effective for a period of 10 years," BSNL said.
As part of the deal, total bandwidth capacity to be provided will be 810 Gbps, covering 20 important locations in the region and both the firms will deploy high capacity telecom equipment in their networks.
The company said these telecom links will become operational in 12-18 months.
"After completion of the proposed connectivity, the reliability of telecom services of North East region including Sikkim will improve substantively, which will result in improved broadband Internet and other telecom services being provided by BSNL...," BSNL said.
