Andhra Pradesh Magazine English June 2016 | Page 43

Two Years of Accomplishments
Andhra Pradesh is a blueprint for a digital state for other states to follow.
I greatly admire Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu for his strong vision to digitise
Andhra Pradesh.
- John T. Chambers, executive chairman of Cisco

I

t is the first of its kind in India,
and is already making waves for
its innovation.

The Fibre Grid Project, taken up by
the Andhra Pradesh Government
with the objective of providing
world's cheapest internet
connection to its citizens has
become a model for other states in
the country to follow.
The first phase of this ambitous
project has already been launched
in Visakhapatnam. Extending
support to the novel initiative was
the Networking giant Cisco
executive chairman John T
Chambers, who was also present on
the occasion.
The main objective of the project is
to provide digital services to all the
1.3 crore households in the state by
July end. Cisco will design and
implement a broadband project in
Andhra Pradesh, the first state to
implement such a project in India as
part of the centre’s Digital India
initiative.
The project will include putting in
place 22,500-km-long broadband
network that will cover two million
households. Cisco signed an
agreement to this effect with the
Andhra Pradesh government.
With the fiber optic rollout, Andhra
Pradesh becomes the first Indian
state to bring all its households
online. Under the Digital India
initiative launched in July last year,
the union government is aiming to
connect 250,000 gram panchayats
with high speed Internet by 2017.
“Andhra Pradesh is a blueprint for a
digital state for other states to
follow,” Chambers said.
JUNE 2016

Households in the state will get
broadband connection with speed of
2-20 Mbps while institutions will
receive 1-10 Gbps connectivity by
2018. Households will receive
Internet, cable and phone connection, all on the same line, for Rs.149.
The project is being implemented
using fiber to the home (FTTH)
technology at 2,500 locations in the
State.
The Andhra Pradesh government is
initially investing Rs 333 crore to
implement the statewide optic fiber
project