The third and largest phase of the government’s broadband project BharatNet, which has an outlay of Rs 65,000 crore, is likely to create 25,000 direct and indirect jobs over the next two-three years, staffing firm TeamLease Services said.

“The recently launched Phase III of BharatNet marks a significant shift in strategy,” said Subburathinam P, Chief Strategy Officer at TeamLease Services. “This phase prioritizes last mile connectivity through innovative solutions such as Wi-Fi hotspots (2-5 per gram panchayat) and fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) services. Targeting 6.25 lakh villages, phase III utilizes public- private partnerships (PPP) and advanced technologies to deliver high-speed Internet of 100 Mbps or more.”

He said BharatNet’s rollout will catalyze job creation for roles such as fiber technicians, NOC (network operations center) staff and indirect roles such as installation and repair technicians and customer support staff.

“Additionally, fiber sharing agreements with other partners are expected to scale up and further enhance,

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) had opened bids for BharatNet Phase III in August. Soon after, private players including HFCL, Sterlite Technologies (STL), Polycab and Rail Vikas Nigam Limited (RVNL) had announced that they had emerged as the lowest bidders in separate state-wide tenders to provide intermediate mile link.

STL said its Rs 2,500 crore was the lowest L1 bid in Jammu and Kashmir, Polycab said it was the lowest in Goa, Puducherry and Karnataka at Rs 5,649 crore, while the HFCL-RVNL consortium said it bid least in several states for Rs 5,000 crore. The companies go through financial and technical analysis before the final offers are awarded. “The third phase is different from the previous two phases, both in terms of project structure and network implementations,” said Mahendra Nahata, CEO of HFCL. “Previous implementations had some problems with fiber termination because they relied on a single point of failure. This time we are going with ring topology, which will protect the networks from such shocks.” Phase III also has a unique three-tier project structure.It entails that BSNL will provide internet-leased bandwidth, which will be handled by private players with the task of operation and maintenance for 10 years.

Last-mile connectivity to end users will be through the Udyami model. Udyamis are local village entrepreneurs who want to work with BSNL.

A total of 21 bidders submitted their bids under the BharatNet III programme. It is part of the government’s Rs 1.39 lakh crore BharatNet programme, which aims to provide last mile broadband connectivity to all villages.

The project was started in October 2011 under the Congress-led UPA government as the National Optic Fiber Network (NOFN). Renamed as BharatNet, it was meant to connect 250,000 gram panchayats and 640,000 villages through broadband to achieve the goal of Digital India. Almost half of these were covered under Phase I and II, with a total outlay of Rs 42,068 crore.

Optical fiber cable connections in India have grown from 10.62 lakh kilometers in 2014 to 38.86 lakh kilometers in 2023. However, India’s wired broadband penetration stands at just 20%, according to data from telecom authorities.