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Q1: What is the National Optical Fibre Network?

Ans: Government of India has approved on 25-10-2011 the sett ing up of Nat ional Opt ical Fiber

Network (NOFN) to provide connectivity to all the 2,50,000 Gram Panchayats(GPs) in the country.

This would ensure broadband connectivity with adequate bandwidth. This is to be achieved utilizing

the existing optical fiber and extending it to the Gram Panchayats.

Q2: What is BBNL?

Ans: Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL), is a Special Purpose Vehic le (SPV), set up by the

Government of India for the Establishment, Management and Operation of NOFN. BBNL has been

incorporated as a Public Sector Undertaking(PSU)/ Company under Companies Act(1956). BBNL was

incorporated on 25/02/2012.

Q3: What benefit will I get from NOFN?

Ans: NOFN has the potential to transform many aspects of our lives inc lud ing video, data, internet,

telephone services in areas such as education, business, entertainment, environment, health

households and e-governance services. These services wil l be offered by TSPs/ISPs.

Q4: What are the various services that can be facilitated by BBNL?

Ans: Services like G2C, B2B, P2P, B2C etc. covering E-education, Remote Health Monitoring, E-

governance, Weather, Agriculture etc. can be accessed by common man through NOFN. These

services will be offered by TSPs/ISPs. BBNL will l provide access to all categories of Service

Providers

Q5: What is the Government policy for driving National Broadband?

Ans:The Nat ional Telecom Pol icy (NTP) 2012 states the following:

Affordable and rel iable broadband on demand by 2015.

Target of 175 Million Connection by 2017.

Target of 600 Million Connection by 2020 at minimum 2 mbps speed and higher speed upto

100 mbps on demand.

Recognise Telecom and BB connectivity as a basic necessity like education and health and

work towards, " Right to Broadband".

Synergy between existing on-going and future Government programs viz e-Gov, e-

Panchayat, MGNREGA, NKN, Aakash, etc. and Broadband roll-out and sharing of infrastructure

Q6: Why is broadband important?

Ans : Broadband is a tool for improv ing the life of people by providing affordable and

equitable access to information and knowledge. For individuals, broadband has direct

impact on their day to day life style and behavior. For states, it enormously contributes

towards trade and generation of employment

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Q7: What are various applications for panchayats?

Ans:

Panchayat Management - Gram sabha meetings, village records, updating of citizen databases

effective performance monitoring of Panchayats

Community Participation - Intra-village, Intra-district sharing of practices and resources

Communication with Block, and District. Knowledge Dissemination - Sharing of Agricultural practices, productivity techniques Small

enterprises, Vocational learning.

Delivery of Citizen Services - Delivery of services including Health, Education and Finance,

etc. Single point of Government to citizen interaction for Centrally sponsored/Central sector/ State

sponsored schemes Grievance redressal.

Developmental planning - Road, transportation and power connectivity knowledge

connectivity in the form of good educational & training institutions Provision of drinking water and up-

gradation of existing health facilities Market connectivity to enable farmers to get the best prices for

their produce.

Q8: How many panchayats are to be covered by NOFN?

Ans : Nat ional Opt ica l Fiber Network (NOFN) to provide connec tiv ity to 2,50,000 Gram

Panchayats.

Q9: What are the different technologies being used?

Ans : GPON (Gigabit Passive Opt ical Network) technology wil l be used for NOFN Pro ject.

GPON is an open standard technology.

Q10: What is GPON technology?

Ans : GPON is known as Gigabit Passive Optical Network technology.

A Passive Opt ical Network (PON) is a network architecture that brings fiber cab ling and

signals to the home using a point-to-multipoint scheme that enables a single optical fiber to

serve multiple premises. Encryption maintains data security in this shared environment.

The architecture uses passive (unpowered) optical splitters, reducing the cost of equipment

compared to point-to-point architectures.

The GPON (Gigabit Passive Optical Network) standard differs from other PON standards in

that it achieves higher bandwidth and higher efficiency using larger, variable-length

packets. GPON offers efficient packaging of user traffic, with frame segmentation allowing

higher quality of service (QoS) for delay-sensitive voice and video communications traffic.

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Q11: What is OLT in GPON Technology?

Ans : OLT is known as Opt ical Line Termintion which is the Centre office termina l used in

GPON technology.

Q14: Which PSUs are likely to execute the project?

Ans : BSNL, Rai lTe l and PGCIL have been assigned the execution work by BBNL.

Q15: Which Institutions Agencies are associated with NOFN Project implementation?

Ans : BSNL, Rai lTe l, PGCIL, C-DOT, TCIL and NIC are working with BBNL on the NOFN

Project. The funding of the project is from USOF.