13,693 gram panchayats of Gujarat will be connected by VSAT satellites that will enable video, voice and data offerings in the areas of e-governance, distance education, telemedicine, agriculture and interactive advisory and counselling services.
Each panchayat will also get it’s own email address and the project will cost Rs 200-300 crore (i.e. 50-75mn USD)
Bharti Airtel, which began work on the project in January, plans to connect the panchayats with broadband connectivity at speeds of 2mbps. The project will be connected through VSATs, which bounce data signals from one location to another via satellites, routing these signals through small dish antennas. source
Digital revolution?
FYI Ashish : It’s Gov of Gujarat Initiative not Airtel, and work for 1 district is over and inagurated.
not digital revolution but more of a governing revolution, this is just basic infrastructure otherwise, no point in creating hype over it
Observer – I never intended to create a “hype” around the story. At the end of the day, its a digital revolution – the end result is that villages are being connected via vsat.
Yes govt. played a big role and that’s a role model for other state govt. to follow.