Goa State Broadband Network to trigger competition

Panaji, Aug 22 (UNI) The launch of the Goa State Broadband Network Project, the first of its kind in the country, is likely to trigger a healthy broadband war among the key players including the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in providing value added services in the tourist destination.

''It is going to fuel healthy competition among the key players of the internet service providers with the state Wide Area Network poised to launch its services soon, offering a huge bandwidth besides several value added components,'' said Information Technology Minister Dayanand Narvekar.

The most attractive aspect of the Goa project was the introduction of IP telephony, offering free use of internet protocol based telephony within the state, along with value added services like the IPTV, wherein the user can download as many digital films as possible for viewing at his own convenience or on demand, claims Chief Secretary J P Singh.

The consortium of companies under the banner of United Telecom undertook the Broadband network project for which it has completed laying of about 250 km optical fibre cable network in the island state at a cost of Rs 150 crores.

At the same time, 3i-Infotech, a global provider of IT solutions and leading e-governance consultancy service provider, has initiated what it termed the ''Integrated Information Information (I-3)'' project to set up a ''State Data Centre'' with a single official portal for the Goa government.

It has also planned to set up ''Integrated Citizen Service Centres'' (ICSC) across the state through local village level entrepreneurs for providing the citizens with a host of government services at the click of the mouse.

The two projects were undertaken on the ''Public-Private Partnership'' (PPP) model wherein the government did not spend a single paise by way of investment but served as a facilitator to promote the project, claimed to be first of its kind in the country, the State IT Director M N Rao told UNI