LG Mathur calls on Union Communications Minister, raises connectivity issues in Ladakh

STATE TIMES NEWS

LEH: The Lieutenant Governor of Ladakh, RK Mathur, met the Minister for Railways, Communications, Electronics & Information Technology, Ashwini Vaishnaw, in New Delhi on Sunday.
LG Mathur pressed on the need for saturation coverage with 4G connectivity for the entire population of Ladakh. He also raised several issues related to telecommunication connectivity in Ladakh, including providing optic fibre cable (OFC) to all the Gram Panchayats under Bharat Net Phase-II on a Public-Private Partnership (PPP) model, providing 4G mobile services to remote and uncovered areas of Ladakh and upgradation of 2G towers to 4G in a time-bound manner, creating redundancy and reliability in BSNL network by getting PGCIL fibre on board for Leh from Srinagar, allowing intra-licensed service area roaming service for tourists in Ladakh; WiFi access points at all the DSPT sites and also sites under Bharat Net Phase II allotted to BBNL/TCIL, intervention in initiating the Annual Maintenance Contract for sites allocated to BBNL/TCIL, etc.
LG Mathur shared that the existing optic fibre cable (OFC) of Vindhya Telelinks Limited has the capacity to connect 80-90% of villages in Ladakh with an investment of approximately Rs 20-30 crores. He requested for increasing the bandwidth of VSAT connectivity of BSNL and BBNL from the existing speed of 2 MBPS.
LG Mathur thanked the Minister for agreeing to refer to TRAI for increasing the intra-cellular coverage in Ladakh and requested to expedite it and make it mandatory for service providers for the convenience of locals and tourists.