Last week “Bangalore Mirror” reported that illegal fibre cables would be cut off by Bangalore’s local govt body (BBMP). Of the 25,000-km optical fibre cable (OFC) network running under the ground, only 5,000 km is ‘authorised’
IT industry contributes 35% of the total revenue generated in Karnataka.
BBMP is demanding Rs 120 rental per meter of OFC per month. A company having around 900 km of OFCs running under the ground, will have pay around Rs 15 crore per month. I can’t imagine too many broadband companies in Bangalore collecting over Rs 15 crores per month.
Starting on Oct 10, 2011, BBMP will start disconnecting many broadband connections. The court has asked BBMP to disconnect unauthorized connections and collect money from the authorized ones. Sounds correct though. BBMP wants to collect a minimum of Rs 600 crore ($120 m / $1 = Rs 50) PER MONTH from these broadband companies!
It is high time across India broadband is categorized under ‘essential services’.
To add salt on the wounds of Bangaloreans, I came across the broadband rates in Hyderabad – Rs 1,000 for 10 MB connection! I was waiting for such awesome offerings in Bangalore, for now we Bangaloreans need to worry about having normal broadband connections 🙁
Sad to see what is happening to Bangalore in spite of it being the home to several internet companies in India.
nikhil says
October 9, 2011 at 10:44 pm“BBMP is demanding Rs 120 rental per meter of OFC per month. A company having around 900 km of OFCs running under the ground, will have pay around Rs 15 crore per month.”
120 x 900,000 = 108,000,000
That is ~ 11 Cr.