The Rupees 20,000 crore project for National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) proposed by the Government of India has been approved by the Department of Telecommunications. This will be funded through the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) which has got about Rs.25,000 cores at its disposal collected from the telecom companies including BSNL. The preparatory work is being entrusted with the BSNL as per the statement of Kapil Sibal, Communications Minister. BSNL is the only telecom operator which has got network in almost all the gram panchayats, villages etc. and hence this responsibility.
However, Minister also stated that the work may be entrusted with the private telcos also at a later stage. We can not allow this.
BSNL has to implement the project effectively in such a way that the question of any private operator entering at a later stage is avoided.