Telecom Minister Highlights Key Learnings from BharatNet's First Two Phases

Communications Minister Scindia announced changes to BharatNet’s architecture for greater success in its third phase, despite new contracts.

Scindia emphasized balancing capex and opex plans, while reworking BharatNet’s topology from linear to “ring” for better reliability.

The invite for bids, Mr. Scindia said, also included stringent performance standards from BharatNet contractors, such as making sure that the network anywhere remains up for at least 95% of the time.

Starlink launch

On the launch of SpaceX’s satellite internet service Starlink, Mr. Scindia said that any decision was contingent on recommendations from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which is holding a consultation process. A Starlink executive had clashed last week with Indian telecom executives over the course of an open house discussion held by the regulator, accusing the firms of making false statements about the Elon Musk-owned service.

After that consultation process concludes with recommendations from TRAI, Mr. Scindia said, Starlink would be free to apply. “They have to comply with all the conditionalities,” he said. “You must view it from a security perspective and ensure that all security concerns are addressed.”

Spam, quality

On quality of service, Mr. Scindia said the government had introduced stringent guidelines that would require telcos to share more detailed data on their services in the public domain. He also noted that the government had set stricter thresholds for latency, which measures internet connection speed. While the government addressed spam calls within India through complaints and partnerships with banks and telcos, he added that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT)’s Telecom Security Operations Centre, set up earlier this year, was tackling international spoofing calls using Indian numbers.