Facebook to help BSNL set up 100 rural Wi-Fi hotspots

Boosting the government’s ambitious ‘Digital India’ drive, social media giant Facebook has come forward to facilitate state-run BSNL in setting up 100 Wi-Fi sites in rural areas of western and southern India.

Facebook will spend Rs 5 crore per annum for sponsoring these 100 Wi-Fi hotspots in the country. “Facebook has partnered with us to sponsor 100 Wi-Fi hotspots in villages across west and southern India.

They will pay Rs 5 lakh for BSNL bandwidth for each hotspot per annum,” BSNL chairman & MD, Anupam Shrivastava said.

The hotspots are being set up by BSNL-selected vendor Quad Zen.

“We have already set up 25 hotspots under the agreement. Facebook is only sponsoring them and not taking any revenue share.

Quad Zen will set up these hotspots and handle sales.

There is revenue share model between BSNL and Quad Zen,” Shrivastava said. When contacted, Facebook spokesperson said, “We don’t have any comments at this point of time.”

The agreement between Facebook and BSNL is for three years and it can be further extended for two more years, he said.

BSNL has also received interest from Member of Parliaments for setting up Wi-Fi hotspots in villages which they have adopted under Saansad Adarsh Gram Yojana (SAGY) to make it a model village by 2016.

“Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, Ravi Shankar Prasad, Najma Heptulla and Lok Sabha speaker Sumitra Mahajan are sponsoring BSNL bandwidth for Wi-Fi hotspots in the villages that they have adopted under SAGY. BSNL approached MPs explaining this model under MPLAD scheme and over 50 MPs have responded positively to it,” Shrivastava said.

He said that the sponsored Wi-Fi spots are being set-up in addition to 2,500 Wi-Fi spots that BSNL is setting up in partnership with Quad Zen and Trimax.
“With Facebook and MPs coming forward, we are being able to set up Wi-Fi hotspots in area where it is not commercially feasible to run them. We are quickly extending optical fibre connectivity to these hotspots,” Shrivastava said.

Under commercial model, Quad Zen will set up 2,000 Wi-Fi hotspots in West and Southern part of the country and Trimax will set up 500 hotspots in North India.

Press Trust Of India

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Meeting with Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella ‘very productive’ and ‘insightful': Devendra Fadnavis

Terming his meeting with India-born Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella as “very productive” and “insightful”, Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis has said the software giant will extend support for a digital village and smart city in the state.

Fadnavis, who is on a week-long visit to the US, met Nadella in Seattle yesterday.

He tweeted a picture of him with the Microsoft CEO and said “Had a very productive meeting and insightful discussion with @Microsoft CEO @satyanadella at Microsoft in Seattle”.

Had a very productive meeting and insightful discussion with @Microsoft CEO @satyanadella at Microsoft in Seattle. pic.twitter.com/voFaVanhJJ

— Devendra Fadnavis (@Dev_Fadnavis) July 2, 2015

He said Microsoft has agreed for a “Digital Village” and for technology support to provide health care services in remote tribal areas in Maharashtra, with a pilot programme to come up at Melghat in Amravati district. The technology major also agreed to develop a smart city, similar to the Maharashtra Industrial Development Corporation (MIDC) and will set up a cyber security centre at Pune, Fadnavis said in his tweet. 

He also met Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Raymond Conner and “discussed expansion of operations at MRO (Maintenance, Repair, and Overhaul) plant in Mihan, Nagpur. He spoke on Maharashtra’s initiatives for expansion of aviation infrastructure and future equirements of aeroplanes, according to a tweet by his office. “@Boeing agreed to take hard look at Nagpur MRO for greater direct expansion and also to steer training initiatives in Nagpur & Maharashtra,” he tweeted.

CM @Dev_Fadnavis met CEO of @Boeing Raymond Conner & discussed expansion of operations at MRO plant in Mihan, Nagpur pic.twitter.com/BFDtahKMhN

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) July 3, 2015

Fadnavis also met Joe Minarik of Amazon Web Services (AWS) and briefed him about the state’s new IT policy. Amazon has shown keen interest in further dialogue for evaluating sites for India AWS Region and also for new investments. “@Dev_Fadnavis assured all the help and necessary support if the company decides to begin its AWS operations in Maharashtra,” his office tweeted.

CM @Dev_Fadnavis met Joe Minarik, GM, Strategic of @awscloud Amazon Web Services & briefed them State’s new IT policy pic.twitter.com/igyMJuSMIX

— CMO Maharashtra (@CMOMaharashtra) July 3, 2015

The Maharashtra Chief Minister arrived in the US on June 29, holding meetings and discussions with business executives and community members in New York, New Jersey, and Detroit where he visited the General Motors and Chrysler headquarters and addressed the Maharashtra Trade Development Conference. He then flew to San Francisco and will visit Los Angeles.

Accompanied by Industry Minister Subhash Desai and other state cabinet ministers, he met senior executives from Google, Cisco and Apple and also signed agreements for various collaborative projects with the companies.

He also tweeted that an MoU has been signed between the Maharashtra government and Cisco to make Nagpur a smart city. 

Another agreement has been signed between the state government and multinational Blackstone and Panchshil Joint Venture for three different projects. “Blackstone to invest Rs 750 crore in EON Free Zone SEZ, Rs 1,200 crore in Hinjewadi Phase-3, Rs 1,500 crore in IT park in Central Mumbai & Rs 1,050 crore in other IT park (Mumbai),”he tweeted. Beverage giant Coca Cola also announced Rs 500 crore investment in Chiplun MIDC.

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