Corpn invites telecos to link 1,000 buildings with optic fibre

According to the EOI, as many as 350 Chennai Corporation office buildings, 282 schools, 18 hospitals and 100 other buildings would relate to optic fibre cable with a minimum of 10 to 100 gigabit-per-second download speed. The civic body also has decided to make provisions for OFC connectivity in 250 buildings that might come in next five years.

“The OFC network availability in the city is limited with only around 30 per cent of the total telecom towers in Chennai connected with fibre. With 5G around the corner, the user experience is bound to decrease without additional fibre investment,” the civic body said in the EOI.

A Chennai Corporation official said that lack of reliable and stable connectivity has been one of the major hindrances in the rolling out of eGovernance-based services by the government and the Chennai Corporation.

“Commissioning dedicated fibre network under public-private partnership model will increase connectivity in Chennai. Apart from connecting Corporation buildings and some select government buildings, the civic body also intends to provide connectivity in areas without fibre coverage,” the official said.

The service provider would be allowed to earn revenue by providing connection to private customers and share revenue with the civic body.

Presently, the Chennai Corporation uses Internet connection with a lower speed of 150 megabytes per second and the civic body spends around Rs 20 lakh for internet connection alone.

The officials expect an exclusive optical fibre connection would provide high-speed data connection with lower charges.

The development follows an announcement made in the state assembly that the optical fibre connection to the Chennai Corporation will be done at an estimated cost of Rs. 200 Crore. As the optical fibre cables would pass through every road and street, it would also provide faster Internet connection for CCTVcameras.