Detailed Project Report for Telecom Infrastructure

DETAILED PROJECT REPORT

FOR

TELECOM INFRASTRUCTURE AUGMENTATION

IN NORTH EASTERN STATES

Prepared by:

TELECOMMUNICATIONS CONSULTANTS INDIA LTD.

(A Govt. of India Enterprise)

TCIL Bhawan, Greater Kailash - I, New Delhi - 110 048.

Telephone: 011 - 26202020 Fax: 011 - 26242266

1 | P a g e Contents 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ...... 4 2. STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT...... 9 3. TELECOM SCENARIO IN NORTH EAST ...... 10 3.1 Introduction ...... 10 3.2 The Bandwidth Bottle-Neck...... 10 3.3 Way Ahead...... 11 3.4 USOF Support...... 15 4. TRANSMISSION MEDIA PLAN...... 16 4.1 Introduction ...... 16 4.2 Status of Existing USOF Schemes in North East ...... 16 4.3 Need for State to State & State To District transmission Network ...... 17 4.4 Methodology of Incremental Fiber Requirement for Ring Completion: ...... 17 4.5 Details of existing Optical Fiber infra-structure:...... 17 4.6 Backhaul Equipment Planning ...... 18 4.7 North Eastern Region Connectivity with rest of India ...... 19 4.8 State to State OFC Connectivity...... 20 Recommendation for State to State connectivity in North East ...... 25 4.9 State to District Physical Ring Planning...... 26 Assam...... 26 Recommendation for Assam State to District...... 35 Meghalaya...... 36 Tripura...... 43 Mizoram...... 48 Manipur...... 58 Nagaland ...... 63 Arunachal Pradesh ...... 68 Sikkim...... 78 Details of Operator Fiber km. –Existing & New ...... 80 Recommendation for North East - State To District Ring Connectivity ...... 80 4.10 CAPITAL EXPENDITURE ...... 81

2 | P a g e 4.11 OPERATING EXPENDITURE...... 84 5. COVERAGE FOR UNCOVERED NATIONAL HIGHWAYS (NH) OF NORTH EAST STATES OF INDIA...... 89 5.1 Introduction: ...... 89 5.2 Assumptions:...... 91 5.3 References: ...... 91 5.4 Methodology:...... 91 Back haul channel ...... 93 5.5 BTS Cost Details...... 95 5.6 Result analysis:...... 97 5.6 Key Observation:...... 104 5.7 Recommendation...... 104 6. Annexure...... 105 Annexure I: Graphical Representation of Rings on Google Maps...... 105 Annexure II: Data of Existing OFC of Various Operators...... 105 Annexure III: Details of Fiber Km of TCIL & TRAI...... 105

3 | P a g e 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Introduction:

TCIL was approached by USOF Administrator vide Letter D.O No 30-119-1/2013 –USOF dated 1st Nov 2013 for preparing a DPR in accordance with TRAI Recommendations dated Sep 2013 for Telecom Infra-structure Augmentation in the North Eastern States including Sikkim and Assam.

TCIL studied the above mentioned TRAI Recommendations. Based on the study and various meetings that were held with USOF officers in Nov 2013 the scope of DPR was finalized.

The three verticals addressed in this study report for North East region is as follows:

1. Providing 2G coverage to the villages that are uncovered by any Telecom Service Provider (TSP). 2. Providing 2G coverage to the uncovered National Highway (NH) network of North East. 3. Providing redundancy and diversity for the optical media from State Headquarter (SHQ) to District Headquarter (DHQ) and Inter-State capitals connectivity.

This report covers 2G coverage to the uncovered National Highway (NH) network and transmission media network gap analysis for providing redundancy and diversity for the optical media from SHQ to SHQ and SHQ to DHQ of North East Region including Sikkim, a total of 8 States.

The key findings are the quantity and cost required for upgrading the telecom infrastructure in North Eastern Region. The detailed of the study with quantity is given in the chapters. The summary of estimated cost along with quantity is given below.

CAPEX ESTIMATION

The capital expenditure required to build infrastructure is done for each vertical. The study as detailed in further chapters emphasizes on the quantity of OFC km, equipment quantity and the no. of BTSs required.

A. Transmission Media

4 | P a g e CAPEX for OFC

New OFC (km.) OFC Cost (Rs. Cr.)

Sl. No. of BSNL State No. Districts u/g Damage aerial u/g aerial d Total Cost (Rs cr.) 12.64 5.60 18.24 27 158 0 70 1 Assam Meghalay 9.84 0.00 9.84 11 123 0 0 2 a 29.20 30.56 59.76 8 265 100 382 3 Mizoram 6.08 0.00 6.08 8 76 0 0 4 Tripura 13.66 0.00 13.66 9 171 0 0 5 Manipur 12.32 0.00 12.32 11 124 30 0 6 Nagaland 75.60 51.12 126.72 16 945 0 639 7 Arunachal 10.00 0.00 10.00 4 125 0 0 8 Sikkim 169.34 87.28 256.62 94 1987 130 1091 Total

Note: The rate has been estimated based on the BSNL tender rate for Defense where the minimum per Km rate has been Rs 13 lacs which includes ROW cost and stringent cable specification as per tender requirements. Considering lower OFC specifications and excluding ROW cost, the SITC cost for OFC has been considered as Rs. 8 lakh per km. The per km. cost for OFC varies with the soil quality variation in the sections especially in North East being tough terrain. Cost includes taxes and duties except Octroi and local taxes.

CAPEX for Equipment

Equipment Equipment Cost (RS) Quantity Sl. No State . OA OADM DXC Total Cost OA DXC Total Cost (in Rs OADM (Rs) Crores) 6.85 1 Assam 5 24 3 2,500,000 36,000,000 30,000,000 68,500,000 Meghalay 2.85 2 7 10 1 3,500,000 15,000,000 10,000,000 28,500,000 a

5 | P a g e Equipment Equipment Cost (RS) Quantity Sl. No State . OA OADM DXC Total Cost OA DXC Total Cost (in Rs OADM (Rs) Crores) 5.50 3 Mizoram 18 4 4 9,000,000 6,000,000 40,000,000 55,000,000 4.90 4 Tripura 6 7 1 3,000,000 6,000,000 40,000,000 49,000,000 2.55 5 Manipur 7 8 1 3,500,000 12,000,000 10,000,000 25,500,000 5.25 6 Nagaland 4 7 4 2,000,000 10,500,000 40,000,000 52,500,000 Arunacha 9.45 7 39 10 6 19,500,000 15,000,000 60,000,000 94,500,000 l 1.55 8 Sikkim 2 3 1 1,000,000 4,500,000 10,000,000 15,500,000 38.90 Total 88 73 21 44,000,000 109,500,000 210,000,000 363,500,000

B. ESTIMATED CAPEX for 2G Highway

The capital expenditure required to build infrastructure for 2G coverage in the uncovered national highway of NER is tabulated below. The capital expenditure has been calculated based on the items required for setting up the BTS site which includes evaluated BTS equipment ( 2 TRX), tower & antenna, power infrastructure to support the BTS covering Solar panels, batteries (with 3 days autonomy) as well as DG supply and backhaul equipment along with accessories. The backhaul has been covered through Optical media assuming optical backbone is available along the national highways.

NER has a total highway length of 8480 km out of which 1272 km (15%) is uncovered for mobile communication. Based on the desktop study, a total no of 233 BTS has been found suitably to cover the area at a total cost of Rs 97.37 Crores.

Battery- Solar DG Set- Single power- Single - unit Single Unit

No. Unit Cost Cost of Site Unit of Site with respect S. of BTS of WATT BSC of BTS BTS Type NoTRX of

km. for 30for km. in Lakh to BTS Type Roundedoff BTS Wattage BTS Totalnumbers Totalnumbers meterAntenna AH Watt KVA INR in Rs crores 1 A 5 2 1+1 150 144 6 417 1333 0.69 37.80 54.43 2 B 10 3.25 1+1 200 89 4 521 1667 0.87 48.25 42.94 Total Cost Estimate (In Rs. Crore) 97.37

6 | P a g e Note: The CAPEX calculated above does not include survey cost therefore, 10% additional costs on the estimated CAPEX is to be considered.

The above cost calculation was made taking into consideration the following item heads.

1. BTS with BSC and OMC-R (micro equipment) 2. Power (considering less available Grid power)  Battery (3 days autonomy)  Solar (6 hr sunshine)  Diesel Generator 3. Tower (Mast type) 4. Backhaul (Optical) 5. Miscellaneous Items like Transportation, Site preparation, Installation etc

OPEX

On an average OPEX per year can be taken as 20% of capex cost. Such cost includes AMC, manpower, drive test and optimization, regular site maintenance, diesel etc.

C. Comparison with TRAI Report:

State Total KM Uncovered KM No of BTS TRAI TCIL TRAI TCIL TRAI TCIL Arunachal 597 2302 1992 1218 122 119 Pradesh 131 Assam 3954 2836 94 10 23 211 Manipur 959 959 173 18 34 40 Meghalaya 810 810 0 0 9 74 Mizoram 927 927 8 1 12 187 Nagaland 494 494 101 10 29 28 Tripura 400 400 37 4 6 4 Sikkim 62 1 1272 Total 9846 8480 1631 165 233

7 | P a g e Based on the above following may be noted:

1. TCIL has estimated 233 BTS against TRAI estimation of 165 BTS. This is attributed to TRAI report considering10Km per BTS whereas TCIL has estimated the BTS based on an average 6 Km per BTS / 3 Km per BTS based on the topography. 2. TRAI report indicates uncovered NH distance of 1631 km against TCIL desktop estimation of 1272 km as detailed in subsequent chapters. 3. 1090 Km of National highway data of Arunachal Pradesh was not available on NIC GIS which was part of TRAI report. 4. Estimation of BTS for 1090 km of NH stretch of Arunachal Pradesh has been extrapolated considering 3 Km per BTS as assumption. 5. Total number of BTS estimate to cover 1272 Km stretch of National highways has been estimated to be 233 at a cost of Rs. 97.37 cr.

8 | P a g e 2. STRUCTURE OF THE REPORT The broad structure of report is as follows:

Chapter 1 provides executive summary of the study carried out. It briefly explains the key results arrived after doing analysis.

Chapter 2 defines the structure of the report.

Chapter 3 details the generic Telecom status of NE region and various technologies evolving to address telecom needs.

Chapter 4 details the Transmission Media requirement between State to State rings and State to Districts ring connecting all eight North Eastern states of India including Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Mizoram, Manipur, Meghalaya, Tripura, Sikkim. While analyzing incremental CAPEX it was assumed that the network Between District Headquarters and Blocks of each state is already subsidized by USOF and the network below Blocks upto Gram Panchayat are subsidized under NOFN project. The study has been done to ensure connectivity, Capacity and reliability of Transmission media in above mentioned eight North Eastern States.

Chapter 5 reports on the requirement for the 2G uncovered areas of National Highways of North East, India. Sikkim state was also included in the study report. Total length of NH studied was 8480 Km out of which 1272 Km i.e. 15% was found uncovered by any service provider. GSM 900MHz was taken as reference for study.

9 | P a g e 3. TELECOM SCENARIO IN NORTH EAST

3.1 Introduction The country has seen a phenomenal growth in the availability of economical telecom services. People from all sections of the population are now using mobile telephone and accessing the internet for viewing/retrieval of information and e-mail.

However, in respect of growing tele-density, the urban-rural divide continues. The Government of India is determined to bridge the gap between urban and rural areas in respect of telecom services, because access to voice and data services will play a crucial role in the overall development and growth of the rural areas.

3.2 The Bandwidth Bottle-Neck The transport system in North Eastern States is inadequate on many counts to carry the present/future levels of rural traffic. The shortcomings include insufficient multiplex capacity, some areas not having OFC connectivity, use of radio media having inherent bandwidth/spectrum constraints, and, self-healing path protection is not available.

The existing networks are undergoing upgradation/expansion by the various operators but this is in response to the growing commercial requirements, however, such expansion would not be undertaken with the objective of increasing infrastructure in anticipation of data traffic requirements that would arise in future years in remote and rural areas also because the software applications are also to be developed and setup for the traffic to arise.

The solution to inadequate capacity mentioned above, is to deploy appropriate transport technology in intra-district transport network that will provide cost-effective high capacity. This network will also meet the futuristic requirement in terms of technology and the demand for various applications/services.

Other Challenges in rolling out Telecom Network in North East  Terrain Difficulties  ROW permissions  Inadequate Power availability  Infrastructure Issues

10 | P a g e 3.3 Way Ahead a. 4G - LTE

The way ahead is the new LTE based 4G based technologies which are already deployed in many countries. Instead of 2G & 3G based towers and equipments, the new infrastructure should be based on 4G where the tower deployment is easier and cheaper. It is all the more required in remote places like NER where space, power and funds are constraints as 4G offers solutions addressing all these issues. The 4G BTS are very small in size and require very less power for operation, approx. 20W. Moreover, they can be installed on poles rather than towers. The 4G network is also roll back network i.e., it supports 3G, Edge, GPRS as well as 2G. The 4G network is based on LTE- Advanced - 3GPP Long Term Evolution. LTE is a series of upgrades to existing UMTS technology and will be rolled out on existing frequency band.

Therefore in remote areas where CAPEX is an issue along with power availability, the operators should look at 4G option to make their networks it future proof.

b. Active Infrastructure sharing

Shared RAN is a concept in which one or more licensed mobile services operators agree to share the radio access network of a third party infrastructure provider, for providing the mobile telephone services in accordance with their license terms and conditions. The licensed operator would still own the core network and would continue to own and manage it. The backhaul/transmission system could be on Optical Fibre Cable medium or Microwave or alternative media/technology and used on a shared basis.

Sharing of passive infrastructure is already taking place between Mobile Service Providers on mutual agreement basis, and, third party infrastructure providers are also setting up passive infrastructure (BTS sites) for sharing by licensed mobile service providers who pay rental/leasing charges to such third party infrastructure providers. 7289 towers i.e. about 99.13% have been set up under shared mobile infrastructure scheme. The infrastructure so created is being shared by three service providers for provision of mobile services. 15209 BTS’s have been commissioned by Service Providers and mobile services are being provided. This is as per 12th five year plan for Telecom. This results in reduced up-front cost of setting up BTS infrastructure for the service providers since the passive infrastructure cost component is a major proportion of the total cost of setting up a wireless network.

The sharing of active infrastructure is the logical next step, and the Department of Telecommunications (DOT) has now allowed sharing of active infrastructure amongst

11 | P a g e service providers based on mutual agreements entered amongst them. It is pertinent to mention that DOT guidelines exclude from sharing the allocated spectrum. The active network allowed to be shared is limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network and transmission system only.

Cost savings Active infrastructure sharing results in both CAPEX and OPEX savings for the sharing operators.

It is known that passive sharing allows operators to share costs of passive infrastructure which is estimated to be almost 60% of the BSS cost. In case of active sharing because the BTS equipment, antennas and feeders are additionally shared, the CAPEX savings for operators shall be more. However multi-operator equipment and antennas are more expensive than traditional RAN equipment. But with increased deployment of shared RAN, the production costs may drop in future.

Also the common equipment platform results in less power consumption and reduced maintenance costs.The additional savings that may be obtained on account of shared RAN over passive infrastructure sharing may be estimated from a break-up of site CAPEX structure.

Item of Site CAPEX (%)

Real Estate 28%

Labor cost/civil/ installation 30%

Base Station 22%

Antenna & feeder 10%

Power supply 5%

Others 5%

Total 100%

From above table it is seen that base station and antenna system account for about 32% of site CAPEX and depending upon the number of sharing operators, significant cost savings of appx. 25% may be obtained for each operator.

12 | P a g e In case of OPEX the savings shall arise from (a) lease/rental of passive infrastructure since less space is required to accommodate more operators, and, (b) maintenance and power consumption. The breakup of operational expenses for RAN have been estimated as follows-

Item of Site OPEX (%)

Rental/Lease 40%

Backhaul 22%

Maintenance 20%

Others incl. power consumption 18%

Total 100%

Since all above expenses will get shared, the savings in OPEX are expected to be significant up to appx 10% to 15% of OPEX per operator.

Commercial basis The commercial basis of sharing should take into account (a) recovery of investment made by the third party infrastructure provider in a reasonable period, (b) the annual operational expenses, and, (c) reasonable returns to sustain and grow the business as also make reasonable profits.

Factors supporting Shared RAN Shared RAN may be seen as a new phase of the mobile industry, wherein through the consolidation and sharing of the radio access network the operators shall be able to improve coverage in a faster and more efficient manner than if each operator was to roll-out own network. It is also expected that the operators shall be able to provide more types of specialized services in this process.

The various factors that are expected to drive the deployment of shared RAN services in India include the following:

 Government Teledensity outlook: The Government is having ambitious targets to raise the tele-density in remote/ rural areas and seeing the remarkable growth, as per 12th Five year plan.

 Pressure for cost reduction:

13 | P a g e In view of the low ARPU, the rollout of mobile networks can only be supported on a strategy of minimizing the cost and time of rollout of the network. The sharing of mobile infrastructure is the only way to cut down the cost (especially for new operators). As discussed above, passive infrastructure sharing is already taking place in a big way and the sharing of active infrastructure in light of the recent TRAI guidelines shall be the next big thing.

 Entry of new players and expansion plans of existing operators: Several major operators, who had been operating more on regional basis, have received licenses as well spectrum in new circles, which would enable them to extend their operations on pan-India basis. Also, new licenses have been issued to players such as Unitech, Swan Telecom, and S Tel Limited. Given the significant expansion plans of new entrants over the medium term and the need for them to optimize investments in order to maintain returns, demand for cell-sites is expected to significantly increase. The new entrants are likely to participate in this shared RAN services since they have to counter the competition from entrenched players in an environment of low returns.

 Technological Consolidation: The shared RAN represents an opportunity for existing operators to optimize and consolidate their BSS infrastructure in urban and metro areas on a common, high- capacity and scalable platform (including wide-band and efficient IP transmission network) which shall support the variety of services under 3G/4G with the associated higher bandwidths / data-rates. The technological advantage coupled with the necessity of cost savings makes shared RAN solution equally attractive in semi-urban and rural areas.

 4G Spectrum Allocation: It is felt that the process of 4G spectrum allocations may be completed sometime this calendar year. The telecom industry is anxiously looking forward to the same. It is expected that in the initial phase 4G services will be marketed in metro and major cities. However, the cost of migration to 3G/4G remains an important aspect and the shared RAN network can be one of the solutions for economizing the cost. New technologies to further stimulate demand: In order to augment their services, various operators may plan for providing 4G as well as Wi-Max services as soon as they receive additional spectrum from Government.

 Energy Saving: The shared RAN provides the method of overall reduction of BTS/towers which is in-fact becoming a necessity from the view point of environment and energy saving.

14 | P a g e  Shorter Rollout time: Since the mobile industry is highly competitive, the new entrants face a greater challenge from incumbent operators already having widespread network, established brand name and large subscriber base. Third party active infrastructure providers can provide the economical cost and rollout time advantage which may prove critical for business success of the newer entrants.

3.4 USOF Support Recognizing that present/near-term revenue derived from carriage of rural/remote area traffic on the augmented/expanded network may not be adequate to attract the required quantum of investment, USOF intend to provide financial subsidy support by way of percentage of capital recovery for the five years towards cost of rollout of the district OFC networks in the North East Area. In present report we are calculating the investment required (CAPEX) for building the augmented network.

The OFC network up-gradation/expansion in the various states is required to enable the integrated development of USOF supported service streams, especially the creation of general infrastructure and induction of new technological developments in the telecom sector in rural and remote areas, and therefore qualifies for financial support from USOF under the Indian Telegraph (Amendment) Rules, 2006.

15 | P a g e 4. TRANSMISSION MEDIA PLAN

4.1 Introduction The transmission media plays a key role in carrying the bulk data traffic from node to node. The need for investment in the transmission media in NER has been realized after the study conducted by USOF under various schemes both for wireless and wire line. In one such scheme of USOF for District Headquarter to Block Headquarter connectivity on Optical fiber in a ring topology of 2.5 Gbps upgradable to 10Gbps, the detailed OFC planning had been done and a business plan for Assam & North East had been prepared by TCIL as consultants to USOF. The financial gap between capital recovery vis-a-viz net revenue realized over a period of years was estimated. This gap was recognized by USOF, and the subsidy was provided through tenders floated for DHQ to BHQ connectivity in NER and Assam so as to facilitate telecom operators to rollout the network and mandatorily share it in regulated manner with other operators. BBNL has also addressed this issue Block downwards i.e. OFC connectivity from Block to Gram Panchayat.

4.2 Status of Existing USOF Schemes in North East The projects of OFC connectivity in North Eastern region, below district level have been assigned to BSNL &RailTel and the work is in progress. The status briefly is as follows:

Status of Project Scheme/ Project Current Status DHQ – BHQ USOF – Assam 302 blocks out of 353 has been connectivity on OFC Tender commissioned by BSNL under this scheme. in ring topology. Subsidy amount – 100Cr USOF – North East Survey has been done in 6 North eastern Tender states by RailTel and rollout has been initiated. Subsidy amount – 484 Cr approx. USOF - Sikkim Study has been completed as a part of West Bengal telecom circle. USOF is yet to float a tender. For this report TCIL has assumed that no fund has been allotted for Sikkim yet. BHQ – Gram BBNL – Assam Block to Gram Panchayat FTTx / GPON Panchayat BBNL - North East network has been planned by the three connectivity BBNL-Sikkim executing agencies in these states viz., Assam, Arunachal, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur and Sikkim. A fund of approx 20000 Cr for pan-India rollout has been sanctioned to BBNL.

16 | P a g e 4.3 Need for State to State & State To District transmission Network The transmission network as stated in the table above i.e. districts downwards is building up under USOF schemes & BBNL project, it is realized that with emergence of 3G based applications, video on demand and digital era, huge amount of data shall be generated by the growing telecom subscriber base. To cater to this voluminous data, a robust network is required from state to district and further inter-state. This study focuses on the State to state and state to district part of the transmission network of NER identifying the gaps in the physical connectivity and capacity wise as well.

4.4 Methodology of Incremental Fiber Requirement for Ring Completion: Keeping the data available in TRAI Recommendations as the baseline, approach followed is as given below:

1. Identify the state / district headquarters of North Eastern Region states on a map, as per the latest data available. This was done using freeware Google Earth. 2. Study of existing fiber network , the references from TRAI, NIC, PGCIL Telecom Network, RailTel Network, BSNL planning sheets having existing and planned fiber information of operators in Assam & North East are taken. 3. A physical ring is planned considering the geographical factors i.e. roads, terrain and river etc. on Google earth both for state to state and state to district for all 8 states of NER. 4. The gap in the existing and new fiber required to complete the ring is identified. The new sections are analyzed against the sections in which subsidy is already provided under various USOF schemes for Assam & North East Scheme for District To Block HQ connectivity in ring topology. 5. The Sections so identified after above mentioned steps are tabulated against the rings for each State. 6. In addition to the incremental fiber identified above, a provision of 10 km. fiber is taken for inter-operator PoP to PoP connectivity and in case of new sections also, a 10 km. provision is kept for coiling, termination, and maintenance purposes.

4.5 Details of existing Optical Fiber infra-structure: The media augmentation for fiber redundancy and diversity needs to be planned keeping the total existing infra-structure of various service providers in mind and identifying the existing fiber that can be used while planning the diversity and redundancy. The existing fiber routes are referred from TRAI Report (BSNL Network), PGCIL telecom network (PGCIL website), RailTel telecom network (RailTel Network ppt &USOF NE) data available with TCIL regarding existing OFC of various Service Providers and NIC database.

17 | P a g e 4.6 Backhaul Equipment Planning The physical gaps are analyzed above and the backhaul equipment planning addresses the capacity requirement in the rings planned as explained above. The rings are planned considering existing optical fibre network of all the operators since the network is to be augmented keeping in mind to avoid redundancy of transmission media on same route by different operators.

Effect of Existing USOF Scheme

In USOF schemes adequate measures are taken to cover the above high lease costs.

Following deliverables are expected from BSNL and RailTel in Assam and North East respectively:

1. The operator shall build, operate, own and manage all the equipment/infrastructure for the intra district augmented/created OFC transport network. 2. The operator shall be responsible for complete augmented and created bandwidth in the district wise OFC networks, covering both existing routes/sections, utilized/upgraded as well as new sections. This responsibility shall be on continuous basis and will extend to all aspects of the scheme viz., roll-out and commissioning, operation and maintenance, and providing bandwidth on sharing basis. 3. During the validity of the agreement, at least 70% of the subsidized bandwidth capacity shall be made available by the host operator to other service providers for utilization, on sharing basis at discounted tariff as prescribed in the agreement. 4. The discounted tariff for Assam is 26.22% of current TRAI ceiling rate i.e. minimum discount of 73.78% on the current TRAI Ceiling tariffs for various bandwidth and distance slabs. 5. The discounted tariff for NE-I circle is 12% and for NE-II is 27%. i.e. minimum discount of 88% on the current TRAI Ceiling tariffs in NE-I Service Area and minimum discount of 73% on the current TRAI Ceiling tariffs in NE-II Service Area. 6. The discount is valid on the subsidized bandwidth, provided on lease to other operators, in the OFC transport network from SDHQ-SDHQ, having both the ends in same district or in different districts. 7. The discounted tariff is applicable till the agreement period continuous between USOF and BSNL for Assam and USOF and RailTel for NE respectively.

From above it can be concluded that if BSNL and RailTel has to ensure the bandwidth from any District to any District and they have to share it with other operators at a discounted rate as prescribed in their respective agreements. But their mandate is to ensure ring architecture between DHQ and SDHQ. From SDHQ of one district to SDHQ of

18 | P a g e another district, they have to only ensure a path, not a protected path. Hence for redundancy in path between State HQ to District HQ, plan has already been proposed above. It is assumed that 2.5G ADM are available at all DHQs as it is one of the deliverables to ensure ring of minimum 2.5G expandable to 10G.

State to State & State to District Ring Design

The SDH ring design with an interconnected multi-ring architecture overlaid over an optical mesh network or on Optical physical network as planned in state-wise physical rings above. The no. of wave lengths required in any logical ring, is calculated using the additional bandwidth requirement from the TRAI report. The logical rings consist of Optical Add/Drop Multiplexers (OADM) and Digital Cross Connects (DXC). OADM is placed on nodes where a part of traffic is dropped, some traffic is inserted and the rest is passing through. Digital cross connects are used to cross connect inter ring traffic between multiple rings where inter ring traffic is defined as the set of demands such that source node belongs to one ring and the destination node belongs to other ring. Optical Amplifiers (OA) are placed where only signal regeneration and pass through is needed.

A state-wise equipment plan is formulated and the lease charges wherever required shall be extra. We are also assuming that the existing system present is 2.5G SDH is just sufficient to cater to existing traffic need of blocks below DHQ and a separate equipment shall be planned at DHQ for SHQ to DHQ ring. In order to meet the requirement of increasing bandwidth demand on the basis of various applications, DWDM needs to be deployed.

From above it is analyzed that at least 40 lambda, 2.5G, DWDM system shall be required. The Digital Cross Connect (DXC) is planned at all the state Headquarters and at those District HQs where two or more rings are interconnecting. A provision of one OADMat each District Head Quarter is taken while planning. In new sections, an Optical amplifier (OA) is placed at every 40 km. distance for regeneration of signal. In a ring, when there is an inter operator switching of traffic, an OA is planned at interconnection point. An OA is also planned at nodes other than DHQ in the ring which are at the end points of new section. The equipment projections on the rings are analyzed in the respective tables of state.

4.7 North Eastern Region Connectivity with rest of India Assam state is the gateway to the northeastern part of India. It is surrounded by the other northeastern states: Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya. Assam along with these 6 states, together called the “seven sisters”.

19 | P a g e These states are connected to the rest of India via Assam's border with West Bengal and a narrow strip called the "Chicken's Neck."

Redundant Connectivity of Guwahati with Rest of India (Chicken Neck)

Traffic Routing of North East State And Assam through Kolkata All the telephone traffic generated by BSNL and other operators in these Seven Sisters State has to be brought to Kolkata for further routing through the Tax Network. The entire NorthEastState telecommunication OFC link with rest of India must pass through this “Chicken Neck Area”. At present, the distance between Kolkata and Agartala in India's landlocked northeast is a staggering 1,700 km Incase of disruption in this route there is no alternate land route.

Moreover, distance wise this is a long route, subject to greater number of faults. During any emergency, the telecommunication is solely dependent on satellite communication, which is not cost effective as well as is a low speed with narrow bandwidth. The OFC medium would offer a better future solution in terms of expansion of bandwidth capacity.

In the TRAI report referred, it is mentioned that the OFC route Bongaigaon – Guwahati – Nagaon (350km) which connects Guwahati to the rest of India has been damaged beyond repair due to road widening work and therefore may be funded. It is to mention that subsidy for the same has already been provided in USOF Assam scheme and this section will also get covered indirectly while connecting these districts with their respective sub-districts.

4.8 State to State OFC Connectivity The state to state ring connectivity is seen w.r.t Guwahati, where all the traffic routes and table below shows physical ring from Guwahati to the six NE states & Sikkim. It is seen that in most cases existing OFC connectivity is available on BSNL. Some key sections are available on PGCIL, which is a robust & reliable being OPGW network. The network of RailTel& Oil India (reference TRAI report) is also present as redundant path on some sections. There are only two new sections from Dhemaji to Dibrugarh and Khowai to Kamalpur in Tripura identified , where new fiber need to be laid for ensuring state to state interconnectivity , the CAPEX for same is accounted in the respective state tables.

The equipment upgradation planning is done in all State to Districts rings. A Digital Cross Connect is planned at each State Capital which is equipped with high capacity OADMs.

20 | P a g e The DXC shall be adequate for State to State rings and shall work as an interconnect between State to state ring and State to District ring. No additional equipment is required at State Head Quarters. Hence, Capex requirement in terms of equipment upgradation is nil in State to state connectivity as it is already covered in State to District rings.

21 | P a g e Table 1: State to State Proposed Rings

S. State Ring Proposed new OFC Operator Presence Reference Remarks No. HQ to (Km) State HQ Dhemaji to Dibrugarh 70 km stretch on Guwahati - Baihata - Brahmaputra Mangaldai - Rowt - river and Dekhiajuli - Tejpur - Balipara subject to - BCL Halem - Gohopur - construction Itanagar - Naharlagun - of bridge Nirjuli - Bandardewa - North across. The Lakhimpur - Gogamukh - Option 1 BSNL is present from Guwahati ring length is Dhemaji - Silapather - The CAPEX and km to Dhemaji to Silapather. very large for Guwah Dibrugarh - Moran - pertaining to this ring From Dhemaji to Dibrugarh Itanagar ring ati to Sibasagar - Gaurisagar - Teok 1 are covered in State to OFC of any operator (BSNL, connectivity Itanaga - Jorhat - Numaligarh - District ring of Assam RailTel and PGCIL) is not with r Bokakhat - Kaziranga - as the only uncovered present, and Brahmaputra Guwahati. Kuwaritol - Nagaon - portion (Dhemaji – river is in mid way, hence Hence Mahadevgaon - Guwahati Dibrugarh (70km) aerial OFC is prposed in this Option 2 coincides with the section. below is district to district ring From Dibrugarh to Guwahati more of Assam. BSNL existing fibre is present. KML 1 appropriate. Guwahati - Baihata - Guwahati to Itanagar section is PGCIL return Mangaldai - Rowt - Existing fibre of BSNL. path offers Dekhiajuli - Tejpur - Balipara Itanagar to Tezpur to reliable & Option 2 - BCL Halem - Gohopur - Bongaingaon to Guwahati better Ring Itanagar - Tejpur - section has an alternate redundancy. Bongaigaon - Guwahati 0 Km redundancy through PGCIL. KML 2

22 | P a g e S. State Ring Proposed new OFC Operator Presence Reference Remarks No. HQ to (Km) State HQ BSNL is available in entire route. PGCIL is available in following Guwah sections: ati - Guwahati - Shillong Shillong Guwahati - Pathankhana - Shillong - Silchar -Silchar Mairang - Shillong - Jowai - Silchar - Imphal (planned) - Kalain - Silchar - Jiribam - Imphal - Dimapur Imphal Tamenglong - Kangkopi - Dimapur - Tezpur - Bongaigaon 2 - Option 1 0 km Imphal - Ukhrul - Kohima - - Guwahati Kohima Sechu - Dimapur - Bakulia - - Nagaon - Motapahar – Alternate routes are present Dimapu Guwahati for the following: r - Guwahati - Shillong via Guwah Nongpoh. ati Kohima - Dimapur via Nuland Dimapur to Nagaon via Numaligarh KML 3 Silchar - Karimganj - Patharkandi - Dharamnagar - Kamalpur : BSNL existing. Silchar - Karimganj - Silchar - Kamalpur - Khowai: New OFC Patharkandi - Dharamnagar - Agartal Proposed (included in Tripura Kamalpur - Khowai - a - state to district). 3 Mohanpur - Agartala - Aizawl Agartala - Salema - Ambassa : Salema - Ambassa - – Only a small section of BSNL and PGCIL present. Manughat - Aizwal - Serken - Silchar the ring is uncovered, Ambasa - Manughat : BSNL Kolasib - Silchar which is covered as a present. part of State to District Manughat to Aizwal: PGCIL ring of Tripura. present. KML 4

23 | P a g e S. State Ring Proposed new OFC Operator Presence Reference Remarks No. HQ to (Km) State HQ Aizwal to Silchar: BSNL OFC present.

This is also to mention that PGCIL has planned OPGW from Aizwal to Kolasib which may be considered after checking latest status from PGCIL. Guwahati - Rangia - Padhshala - Bongaigaon - Coochbehar (WB) - Jalpaiguri - Siliguri - Gangtok : BSNL present Guwahati - Rangia - Guwah Padhshala - Bongaigaon - Gangtok - Melli - Siliguri - ati - Coochbehar (WB) - Jalpaiguri Bongaigaon - Guwahati: PGCIL 4 Option 1 Gangto - Siliguri - Gangtok - Melli - present k Siliguri - Bongaigaon – Guwahati OFC of OIL India is also available from Guwahati - Dharampur - Barpeta Road - Kokrajhar - Madarighat – 0 km Siliguri KML 5

The referenced KML files are placed in Annexure-1

24 | P a g e Recommendation for State to State connectivity in North East The state to state connectivity analysis has been done and it is analyzed that BSNL OFC network is existing from state to state in NER region. However, redundancy on these existing routes is critical as these are bulk traffic carrying routes and generally NER has difficult terrain so any fiber damage / cut may take long time to repair.

With this perspective, PGCIL OPGW network along high power transmission line is very reliable option, it is connecting all state capitals with Guwahati. The details are provided in Table above. As mentioned in TRAI report, PGCIL is not leasing dark fiber but only providing bandwidth and the tariff on these NER routes is also relatively high. This issue may be dealt by calculating the financial gap and providing subsidy to PGCIL on these specific routes. It is essential to create a level playing field in NER and encourage operators to enter in NER. At the same time PGCIL may reduce its bandwidth leasing charges to other operators, hence, to reduce unnecessary incremental OFC layout for redundancy network and to utilize the existing OFC in best way USOF may suitably provide subsidy support to existing operators for the same to promote improvement of telecom infrastructure in North Eastern states.

The analysis of the redundancy and capacity for state to state ring is done and the strategy is tabulated below. As such no infrastructure gap is seen. The issue is high Bandwidth lease charges and non-availability of dark fiber by operators with existing infrastructure like BSNL & PGCIL in NER.

S.No State to State CAPEX Operator Presence Connectivity Requirement 1 Assam - Arunachal NIL BSNL & PGCIL fiber is existing from Pradesh Guhawati to Itanagar. It is presumed that under the recent BSNL & PGCIL agreement, the PGCIL section is available to BSNL. 2 Assam - Meghalaya- NIL BSNL fiber is existing connecting the Manipur - Nagaland state capital Guwahati, Imphal, Shillong, & Kohima. 3 Assam (Cachar NIL (36km fiber The ring as a sub ring from Silchar District) - Tripura- covered in Tripura) (Assam Cachar district) is envisaged on Mizoram BSNL & PGCIL fiber to connect Silchar – Agartala-Aizawl - Silchar. A small section from Kamalpur – Tulashikhar (36 km.) appears to be non existing (can be checked with RailTel).

25 | P a g e 4 Assam – Sikkim NIL BSNL & PGCIL fiber is existing from Guhawati to Gangtok.

Note: The above CAPEX requirement includes cost of OFC (supply + service). The provision of CAPEX for Equipment upgradation is kept in state to district rings and the same system shall suffice the requirement of state to state rings.

4.9 State to District Physical Ring Planning

The study of state to district connectivity in ring topology is done for Assam, Sikkim and the six North Eastern state and it is seen that mostly BSNL is present and many uncovered sections are already funded in USOF Assam & NE scheme. However, RailTel& BSNL need to expedite the rollout of fiber in the NER and adhere to the timelines given. The incremental quantity of OFC length as analyzed in table below for State to District ring completion is subject to completion of the USOF Assam & NE scheme.

Assam The Assam state has 27 districts, and the study is done w.r.t to state head quarter – district headquarter connectivity in ring on OFC, considering the existing fiber of various operators. The gaps identified are from

1) Dhemaji to Dibrugarh (70 km) - This is subject to completion of bridge on Brahmaputra river as also mentioned in TRAI report. This section is important from point of view of state to district ring connectivity in Assam. Survey may be done to get the actual length of underground fiber and aerial fiber over Brahmaputra river.

2) Silchar to Diphu - On this section, in parts BSNL(Silchar to Udarband existing), Habagajao – Maibang (subsidy provided in USOF Assam Scheme) andRailTel (Dihu to Lumding) is present.The new section length is estimated as Udarband(Cachar) – Harangajao (North Cachar)59 km and Maibang- Lumding79.1km, the total length is 138 km. The detailed ring covering the connectivity & redundancy is tabulated in Table 2 and the respective KML files are placed at KML-6 to KML 8 in Annexure 1.

The capacity enhancement of these rings is done by equipment planning on 40 lambda, 2.5 G DWDM rings , the methodology is explained in 4.6 section.

26 | P a g e Table 2A: State Headquarter to District Headquarter OFC Connectivity (Assam) trict S.No. No. Ring Ring dis No. of of Name Districts Existing Section Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Assam to District(ASD) RING Kajalgaon is DHQ of Chirang district, and it is very near (10 km) to Guwahati - Bongaigaon. Goalpara - Therefore it is Baitamari (BTM) - presumed that Bilasipara (BLSP) - Kamrup, as per TRAI Dhubri - Kamrup information CoochBehar (COB) - (metro), and USOF Kokrajhar - Goalpara,Dhu Assam tender Kajalgaon - bri, Kokrajhar, reference, Bongaigaon - Chirang, Kajalgaon is Barpeta Rd - Bongaigaon, connected on Nalbari - Rangia - Barpeta, this ring with 1 1 Guwahati 9 Nalbari Entire ring BSNL TRAI Nil Guwahati. ASD – 1 Guwahati- Pathshala- Barpeta Rd- Bongaigaon- Kokrajhar OIL TRAI Guwahati - PGCIL Kahelipara- Websi Bongaigaon PGCIL te

27 | P a g e trict S.No. No. Ring Ring dis No. of of Name Districts Existing Section Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Assam to District(ASD) RING Guwahati - Chayagaon- Duphdhara- Goalpara-New Bongaigaon- Kokrajhar- Bijni- Barpeta RailTel Rd - Nalbari – SDH Guwahati RailTel ppt Guwahati - Baihata(BHT) - Darrang,Sonit Mangaldai (MLD)- pur, Tezpur- Lakhimpur, Nagaon - N.Lakhimpur - Dhemaji, Marigaon - Dhemaji - Dibrugarh, Guwahati is Dibrugarh - Tinsukia Tinsukia, existing - Duliajan - Sonari - Sivsagar, section as per Sibsagar - Jorhat - Jorhat, Guwahati - Dhema NIC. It is Marianil - Golaghat Golaghat, Dhemaji & ji- shown as - Nagaon- Marigaon Nagaon, Dibrugarh - Dibrug TRAI 70 planned in 2 2 - Guwahati 11 Marigaon Guwahati BSNL TRAI arh & NIC km TRAI Report. ASD-2 Guwahati- Nagaon - Jorhat- Duliajan OIL TRAI Guwahati- PGCIL Bongaigaon- Websi Tejpur- Nagaon PGCIL te

28 | P a g e trict S.No. No. Ring Ring dis No. of of Name Districts Existing Section Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Assam to District(ASD) RING Guwahati- Sikoni- Jorhat- Moran- Tinsukia- Namrup- Mariani- Furkating- Sarupatahr- Dimapur- Diphu- Lumding- Lanka-Jagi RailTel Road- SDH Guwahati RailTel ppt Silchar - Udarba nd(Cac har) – Harang ajao (North Cachar TRAI , Guwahati - Shillong Karimganj, Guwahati - )59 km USOF - Jowai - Karimganj - Hailakandi, Shillong - Jowai – Assam Hailakandi - Silchar Cachar, - Karimganj - Haflon Sche - Haflong - Diphu - Haflong, Hailakandi - TRAI g– me, 138. 3 3 Guwahati 5 Diphu Silchar BSNL & NIC Maiba NIC 1 km ASD-3

29 | P a g e trict S.No. No. Ring Ring dis No. of of Name Districts Existing Section Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Assam to District(ASD) RING ng(cov ered in USOF Assam) - Lumdin g 79.1km Guwahati- Kahelipara- Shillong - Khlerihat- PGCIL Badarpur - Websi Silchar PGCIL te Guwahati- Digaru-Jagi rd- Chapramukh- Lanka- Lumding- Diphu - Tinsukia- Dibrugarh- RailTel Jorhat- SDH Guwahati RailTel ppt Guwahati - Nagaon Guwahati - Udalguri & - Musalpur - Musalpur & Baksa will get Tamulpur - Udalguri Udalguri,Baks Guwahati - connected in 4 4 - Guwahati 2 a Udalguri BSNL TRAI ring through ASD-2

30 | P a g e trict S.No. No. Ring Ring dis No. of of Name Districts Existing Section Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Assam to District(ASD) RING their Block Headquarters under USOF Assam Tender. Subsidy already provided.

31 | P a g e Table 2B: State Headquarter to District Headquarter Equipment Planning (Assam)

OFC Distance Provisio Equipment OFC (Km) n Inter- Required Ring Operato Operato From To Remarks No. r & U/g or r Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc

145 1 DXC at Guwahati, Guwahati - Goalpara - BSNL Nagaon, Nalbari

47.5 RailTel, OIL & PGCIL Baitamari (BTM) also there on cerain Goalpara - - BSNL section of this ring Baitamari (BTM) Bilasipara (BLSP) 42.3 - - BSNL Bilasipara (BLSP) 43.6 - Dhubri - BSNL ASD 1 CoochBehar 80.4 Dhubri - (COB) BSNL CoochBehar 144 (COB) - Kokrajhar - BSNL - Kokrajhar - Kajalgaon - 31.6 BSNL Kajalgaon - Bongaigaon - 10 BSNL Bongaigaon - Barpeta Rd - 50.3 BSNL Barpeta Rd - Nalbari - 68.3 BSNL Nalbari - Rangia - 20 BSNL Rangia - Guwahati 54.7 BSNL ASD 2 Guwahati - Baihata(BHT) - 189 BSNL

32 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisio Equipment OFC (Km) n Inter- Required Ring Operato Operato From To Remarks No. r & U/g or r Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc

201 RailTel, OIL & PGCIL Mangaldai also there on cerain Baihata(BHT) - (MLD)- BSNL section of this ring Mangaldai 94.6 (MLD)- Tezpur- BSNL Tezpur- N.Lakhimpur - 206 BSNL N.Lakhimpur - Dhemaji - 69.4 BSNL

70 2 aerial km. subject to Dhemaji - Dibrugarh - aerial New survey Dibrugarh - Tinsukia - 47.7 BSNL Tinsukia - Duliajan 26.7 BSNL Duliajan - Sonari - 66.8 BSNL - Sonari - Sibsagar - 47.1 BSNL Sibsagar - Jorhat - 58.7 BSNL Jorhat - Marianil - 17 BSNL Marianil - Golaghat - 39.9 BSNL Golaghat - Nagaon- 153 BSNL Nagaon- Marigaon - 56.9 BSNL Marigaon - Guwahati 78.9 BSNL Guwahati - Shillong - 99.6 BSNL Shillong - Jowai - 67.3 BSNL ASD 3 Jowai - Karimganj - 160 BSNL Karimganj - Hailakandi - 61 BSNL Hailakandi - Silchar - 43.7 BSNL

33 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisio Equipment OFC (Km) n Inter- Required Ring Operato Operato From To Remarks No. r & U/g or r Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc Silchar - Udarband 18.7 BSNL 3 Note 1 Udarband Harangajao 59 10 u/g New Harangajao Haflong 42 BSNL Haflong Maibang 50 BSNL Maibang Lumding 79 10 New Lumding Diphu 39 RailTel Diphu Nagaon 143 BSNL 1 Nagaon Guwahati - 127 BSNL Guwahati - Nalbari - 141 BSNL 1 Nalbari - Musalpur - 240 BSNL ASD 4 Musalpur - Tamulpur - 42 BSNL Tamulpur - Udalguri - 79.9 BSNL Udalguri - Guwahati 128 BSNL 3572.6 208 20 Total 5 3

No. of DHQs 27 No. of DXC 3 DXC at Guwahati, Nagaon, Nalbari No. of OADM 24 No. of OA 5

34 | P a g e Recommendation for Assam State to District

The analysis of Assam State to District ring shows that BSNL is the dominant operator. It has already existing OFC covering all the districts and most sub-districts under USOF Assam project. As per the project mandate the lease tariff is reduced on these sections. The State to District gap in Assam for the fiber & equipment is nominal and BSNL may be directly given subsidy being dominant operator to complete this gap and mandated to provide bandwidth on lease at reduced tariff.

35 | P a g e Meghalaya Meghalaya state Headquarter is Shillong and has 11 districts, which includes four new districts formed after 2011 census. The detailed study for the ring connectivity between Shillong and District Headquarters is done using freeware Google earth and existing fiber information from TRAI report under reference and the details of planning information conducted for USOF North East Scheme in which rings were formed between District to Block HQ on fiber.

In Meghalaya all the district headquarter are connected to Shillong in five rings on BSNL existing fiber and on the gap sections are already considered while USOF NE planning wherein these sections are subsidized and to be executed by RailTel.

One new Section of 53 km from Riangdo to Bokois proposed and shall provide additional redundancy to four rings envisaged.

The various rings are tabulated in Table 3 and the respective KML files are placed at KML 9 to KML 12 in Annexure 1.

The capacity aspect on these rings are done by equipment planning on 40 lambda, 2.5 G DWDM rings and repeater distance of 40 km is taken on new sections. The methodology is explained in Section 4.6 Backhaul equipment planning.

36 | P a g e Table 3A: MEGHALAYA STATE TO DISTRCT OFC RING ANALYSIS Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Districts Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Meghalaya (MSD District to Ring) East Khasi Hills, West Shillong - Jowai- Jaintia, East Shillong - Jowai - MSD- 1 Khliehriat - shillong 3 Jaintia Khliehriat BSNL TRAI 1 Khliehriat – PGCIL Option 1 Shillong PGCIL Website Shillong - Mawryngkneng - Dawki- Jowai - Dawki - Pynursla , to Pynursala- be executed Langkyrdem- by NETF as Shillong BSNL TRAI per TRAI Jowai- Khlierihat Subsidy - allocated Lakadong under USOF- Jowai- Amlarem- Ring in NE scheme Lakadong- Rymbia- USOF NE for this Option 2 Khliehriat- Jowai RailTel Plan section. Ring (partly BSNL Subsidy Shillong- Nongpoh - present) & partly allocated Guwahati - Borjhar- covered under TRAI, under USOF- Patharkhama- USOF NE tender BSNL USOF NE NE scheme MSD- 2 Mairang -Shillong 1 Ri Bhoi Option 1 planning &RailTel Plan for this 2

37 | P a g e Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Districts Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Meghalaya (MSD District to Ring) section.

Shillong - Pongjhung - Mawkyrwat- West Khasi Nongstoin-Mairang Hills, South MSD- 3 - Shillong 2 West Khasi Option 1 Ring Existing BSNL TRAI 3 Shillong - Pongkhung- Mawkyrwat- Noongstoin- Riangdo- East Garo WilliamNagar - Hills, North Songsak- Garo Hills, Resubelpara- West Khasi Krishnai- Dudhnoi- Hills, South Boko-Guwahati- West Khasi, Ring via MSD- 4 Nongpoh - Shillong 5 Ri Bhoi Option 1 Existing Ring BSNL TRAI Assam 4

38 | P a g e Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Districts Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Meghalaya (MSD District to Ring) Ring existing on BSNL except Shillong- Nongstoin Mahendraga - Williamnagar- nj - Baghmara- Barengpara Mahendraganj - East Garo and Rewa - Ampati - Hills, West Nongalbibra Garobadha - Tura - Garo Hills, sections Mendal - South West Ring (partly BSNL Ria which are Resubelpara - Garo Hills, present) & partly ngd covered in Dudhnoi - Boko - South Garo covered under TRAI, o- USOF NE Guwahati- Hills, North USOF NE tender BSNL USOF NE Bok 53 planning MSD- 5 Nongpoh - Shillong 5 Garo Hills Option 1 planning &RailTel Plan o km TRAI &subsidized. 5 Riangdo- Boko, new section proposed will provide additional redundancy for ring no. 2,3,4,5 above. Section, Mahendraganj - Barengpara , Rewa- Nongalbibra &, Rongram-Williamnagar as suggested in TRAI report are also covered in USOF NE Note planning and therefore subsidized.

39 | P a g e Table 3B: MEGHALAYA STATE TO DISTRCT EQUIPMENT PALNNING

OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required Remarks (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator No. Existin r & U/g or New OA DXC g coiling Aerial etc MSD 1 Shillong Jowai 65 BSNL 1 (option Jowai Khliehrait 31.8 BSNL 1) Khliehrait Shillong 95.8 10 PGCIL DXC at Shillong Shillong Umsning 30 BSNL Umsning Nongpoh 21 BSNL BSNL, 1 MSD 2 Nongpoh Umling 13 10 RailTel Umling Umkadhor Rd 39 Railtel Umkadhor Rd Mairang 54 10 BSNL 1 DXC of Guwahati Mairang Shillong 46 BSNL taken in Assam Shillong Ponkjhung 53.8 BSNL Ponkjhung Mawkyrwat 21.9 BSNL MSD 3 Mawkyrwat Nongstoin 37.8 BSNL Nongstoin Mairang 49.4 BSNL Mairang Shillong 45.8 BSNL Shillong Pongkhung 53.8 BSNL Pongkhung Mawkyrwat 21.9 BSNL Mawkyrwat Nongstoin 37.8 BSNL MSD-4 Nongstoin Riangdo 43.8 BSNL Riangdo WilliamNagar 101 BSNL WilliamNagar Songsak 30.3 BSNL Songsak Resubelpara 39.8 BSNL

40 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required Remarks (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator No. Existin r & U/g or New OA DXC g coiling Aerial etc Resubelpara Krishnai 21.6 BSNL Krishnai Dudhnoi 13.2 BSNL Dudhnoi Boko 47.7 BSNL Boko Guwahati 65.8 BSNL Guwahati Nongpoh 49.3 BSNL Nongpoh Shillong 51.1 BSNL Shillong Nongstoin 94.7 BSNL Nongstoin Williamnagar 141 BSNL Williamnagar Nongalbibra, 22 BSNL Rewa - 1 Nongalgipara Nongalbibra, Rewak 38 10 Railtel (Railtel USF NE) Rewak Baghmara 24 10 BSNL 1 Baghmara Barenghpara 53 BSNL Mahendragan MSD-5 1 Barenghpara j 50 10 Railtel Mahendragan 1 j Ampati 28 10 BSNL Ampati Garobadha 22.8 BSNL Garobadha Tura 28.2 BSNL Tura Mendal 60.8 BSNL Mendal Resubelpara 25.7 BSNL Resubelpara Dudhnoi 26.8 BSNL Dudhnoi Boko 47.7 BSNL

41 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required Remarks (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator No. Existin r & U/g or New OA DXC g coiling Aerial etc Boko - riangdo - 1 New (53 km. Boko Guwahati 65.8 53 u/g BSNL subsection) Guwahati Nongpoh 49.3 BSNL Nongpoh Shillong 51.1 BSNL Total 2010.3 53 70 0 7 1

No. of DHQs 11 No. of DXC 1 DXC at Shillong No. of OADM 10 No. of OA 7

42 | P a g e Tripura The Tripura State has Headquarter at Agartala and has 8 districts, including four new districts formed after 2011 census. There are 3 rings envisaged from Agartala to its districts which are covered on BSNL fiber and some new sections are already subsidized through USOF NE-1 tender.

A new section required to connect ring between Districts HQ Khowai, Kaliashahar, & Dharamnagar is from Kamapur – Tulashikar (36 km) This section is also identified in the state to state rings for connectivity from Shillong to Agartala to Aizawl but cost of this section is taken here.

The rings are tabulated in Table 4 and are represented in KML 13 to KML 14 in Annexure 1.

43 | P a g e Table 4A: Tripura State to District OFC ring Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Districts Route Redundancy Existing Section Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Tripura District to Ring) (TSD Agartala - Birendranagar- Ambassa- West Gandarchara- Tripura, Amarpur- Dhalai, R.K.pur(Udaipur Gomati, ) - Bisramganj - Sipahijal TRAI, USOF 1 Agartala 4 a Option1 Existing Ring BSNL NE planning TSD-1 Udaipur - New Amarpur - Sections Karbuk - Partly BSNL are Rupaichari - existing & subsidized Satchand - remaining in USOF NE Hrishiyamukh - covered in Tender Belonia – South USOF NE TRAI, USOF 2 Udapiur 1 Tripura Option1 planning NE planning TSD-2 Agartala - Mohanpur - Khowai – Partly Existing Tulashikhar - on BSNL & kamalpur - rest covered Kailashahar- Khowai, in USOF NE Dharamnagar- Unakoti, Tender Kamalpur TRAI, Kumarghat - North i.e.,Khowai- BSNL, USOF NE TRAI, USOF - USOF NE 36k 3 Ambassa- 3 Tripua Option1 Kamalpur Tender NE planning Tulashikar Planning m TSD-3

44 | P a g e Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Districts Route Redundancy Existing Section Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Tripura District to Ring) (TSD Agartala

Option Agartala- BSNL, USOF NE 2 Khowai- Tender Kamalpur- Ambassa - Agartala Kamalpur - Ambassa- Kumarghat- Dharamnagar -Kailashahar- Kamalpur Kailashahar- Dharamnagar -Kumarghat - Kailashahar Option Agartala- 3 Kumarghat PGCIL

45 | P a g e Table 4B: Tripura State to District Equipment Planning

OFC Distance Provisi Equipment OFC (Km) on Required Inter- Ring Operat From To Opera Remarks No. U/g or or Existing New tor & OA DXC Aerial coiling etc DXC at Agartala, 1 Ambassa, udaipur, Agartala Birendranagar 17.4 BSNL Amarpur Birendranagar Ambassa 66.4 BSNL 1 TSD-1 Ambassa Gandarchara 53.3 BSNL Gandarchara Amarpur 35.5 BSNL 1 R.K.pur(Udaip 1 Amarpur ur) 26.3 BSNL R.K.pur(Udaipu r) Bisramganj 19.9 BSNL Bisramganj Agartala 32.4 BSNL Udaipur - Amarpur - 26.3 BSNL Amarpur - Karbuk - 28.2 BSNL Karbuk - Rupaichari - 68.2 10 RailTel 1 TSD-2 Rupaichari - Satchand - 22.1 RailTel Hrishiyamukh Satchand - - 40.6 RailTel Hrishiyamukh - Belonia - 18.4 10 BSNL 1 Belonia - Udaipur - 38.7 BSNL TSD-3 Agartala - Mohanpur - 23 BSNL

46 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisi Equipment OFC (Km) on Required Inter- Ring Operat From To Opera Remarks No. U/g or or Existing New tor & OA DXC Aerial coiling etc (optio Mohanpur - Khowai - 34.1 10 RailTel 1 n 1) Khowai - Tulashikhar 35.9 10 BSNL 1 to check Tulashikhar kamalpur - 36 New 2 with RailTel kamalpur - Kaishahar 27 BSNL Dharamnagar Kailashahar- - 33 BSNL Dharamnagar- Kumarghat - 40.2 BSNL Kumarghat - Ambassa- 68.7 BSNL Ambassa- Agartala 82.6 BSNL TOTAL 838.2 36 40 6 4

No. of DHQs 8 No. of DXC 4 No. of OADM 4 No. of OA 6

47 | P a g e Mizoram The Mizoram State HQ is Aizawl and it has 8 districts in it. The terrain is hilly and road connectivity to district headquarter is only feasible through NH. In many cases, alternate paths are not available, therefore aerial cable is the only way to ensure redundancy in such locations.

The analysis for Aizawl to district HQ has been done, 4 districts namely Serchhip, Lunglei, Lawngtlai and Saiha are connected with Aizawl in ring and sub – rings formed through Serchhip (MZSD - 1to 4), in which two new sections from (Lawngtlai - Saiha (58km) &Sangau - Hnaihthial (62km) i.e total 120 km is proposed.

The other three districts i.e. Champai, Kolasib and Mamit are either partly or fully connected on OFC and to ensure redundancy for these district headquarters aerial fiber is only way because of lack of alternate route.The actual requirement of Underground OFC or OPGW orADSS cable can be assessed only after a detailed field survey.

The new sections suggested to connect these 3 districts in ring with Aizawl are as follows: 1) Underground OFC - Aizawl - Lengpui- Mamit, UG OFC (95 km), Aizawl –Champai (100km){BSNL damaged section, reference TRAI report}

2) Aerial OFC Aizawl- Champai (207 km) , Aizawl – Mamit (95km) and Aizawl – Kolasib (80 km). The actual length of aerial fiber may be less and is subject to a site survey. For budgetary estimation same length as of underground fiber is taken.

The details are given in Table 5 below and the rings are represented in KML 15 to KML 20 at Annexure 1.

48 | P a g e Table 5A: Mizoram State to District OFC Ring ricts Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Dist Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Mizoram District to Ring) (MZSD 1 Aizawl - 2 Aizawl, Serchhip Option 1 Aizawl - BSNL TRAI , USOF NE planning Entire ring MZSD-1 Tlangnuam- Sechhip , except Aibawk - covered under Chingchip to Serchhip - USOF NE Serchhip(whi Thingsulthliah planning ch was BSNL - Aizawl existing then) has been considered in NE planning and subsidy provided. 2 Lunglei -South 2 Lunglei Serchhip Option 1 USOF NE RailTel USOF NE Ring 2 is MZSD-2 Lunglei - planning Planning connecting Buarpui - with Ring 1 Serchhip - via Serchhip. Lunglei This connects both Lunglei & Serchhip with Aizawl in ring redundancy. The entire ring covered under USOF

49 | P a g e ricts Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Dist Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Mizoram District to Ring) (MZSD NE planning.

3 Lawngtlai - 2 Lunglei, Option 1 USOF NE RailTel USOF NE Planning Ring 3 is MZSD-3 Diltang S- Lawngtlai planning connecting Chawngte - with Ring 1 & Lungsen - Ring 2 via Lunglei - Serchhip & Tawipui- Lunglei. This Lawngtlai connects Lunglei, Serchhip and Lawngtlai with Aizawl in ring redundancy. The entire ring covered under USOF NE planning.

50 | P a g e ricts Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Dist Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Mizoram District to Ring) (MZSD 4 Lunglei - 3 Saiha. Lunglei, Option 1 Saiha- Sangau RailTel USOF Lawngtlai 120 km MZSD-4 Lawngtlai - Lawngtlai via Bualpui NE - Saiha Saiha - Sangau Plannin (58km ) - Hnaihthial- g & Sangau Lunglei - Hnaihthi al (62km) 5 Aizawl - 1 Champhai Option 1 Aizawl - BSNL , USOF Aizawl to TRAI 100km A part of this MZSD-5 Thingsulthliah Thingsulthliah RailTel NE Champai Report is existing - Saitual - (Covered Tender BSNL section Kawlkulh - under USOF , TRAI # and damaged Khawzawl- NE ) - Saitual as per TRAI Champai (Existing report. USOF BSNL) - may take a Kawlkulh - call to fund Khawzawl - this section Champai or not. (BSNL Existing & Khawzawl - Kawlkulh in USOF NE Scheme)

51 | P a g e ricts Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Dist Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Mizoram District to Ring) (MZSD Aizawal - 207 Km Aizawl to Champha Champai i, Aerial under ground fiber. is covered by BSNL and some sections are already subsidized through USOF NE Tender. Because of non- availability of roads, Redundancy to Champai from Aizawl can only be obtained through Aerial Fiber. The distance 207 km is linear and for

52 | P a g e ricts Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Dist Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Mizoram District to Ring) (MZSD ADSS fiber, the actual distance may be less.

6 Aizawl - 1 Mamit Option 1 Aizawl - TRAI, 95 km No fiber MZSD-6 Lengpui- Lengpui- USOF NE directly from Mamit Mamit, planning Aizawal - UG OFC Mamit appears neither of BSNL nor in USOF NE . Therefore, both Underground and aerial connectivity to Mamit is required for ring redundancy.

53 | P a g e ricts Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of of Name Dist Route Redundancy Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks State Mizoram District to Ring) (MZSD Aizawl - TRAI, 95km Lengpui- USOF NE Mamit, planning Aerial Fiber 7 Aizawl - 1 Kolasib Option 1 Aizawl - BSNL TRAI , Aizawl - 80 km Aizawl to MZSD-7 Kawnpui - Kawnpui - USOF Kawnpui Kolasib is Kolasib Kolasib NE - Kolasib, existing BSNL. plannin Areial For g fiber redundancy ADSS along the same route is planned.

54 | P a g e Table 5B: Mizoram State to District Equipment Planning

OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator Remarks No. r & U/g or Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc Aizawl - Tlangnuam- 5.2 RailTel 1 Tlangnuam- Aibawk - 25 RailTel Aibawk - Serchhip - 73.7 RailTel MZSD 1 Serchhip - Chhingchhip 28.1 10 BSNL 1 Thingsulthlia Chhingchhip h 34.7 BSNL Thingsulthlia h Aizawl 43.7 BSNL South 44.2 1 Lunglei - Lungdai RailTel South 36.2 MZSD 2 Lungdai Buarpui - RailTel Buarpui - Serchhip - 64.7 RailTel 1 Serchhip - TuiChang 29.5 RailTel, BSNL TuiChang Lunglei 129 RailTel, BSNL Lawngtlai - Diltang S 58.2 RailTel 1 Diltang S Chawngte 30.3 RailTel MZSD 3 Chawngte Lungsen - 101 RailTel Lungsen - Lunglei - 61.2 RailTel Lunglei - Tawipui- 50.2 RailTel

55 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator Remarks No. r & U/g or Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc Tawipui- Lawngtlai 32.5 RailTel Lunglei - Lawngtlai - 82.7 RailTel Lawngtlai - Saiha - 58 10 New 1 MZSD 4 Saiha - Sangau - 82.4 RailTel Sangau - Hnaihthial- 62 10 New 3 Hnaihthial- Lunglei 68.5 RailTel Thingsulthlia Aizawl - h 43.4 BSNL, RailTel Thingsulthlia BSNL h Saitual - damaged 100 km BSNL 4 BSNL Saitual - Kawlkulh - 100 damaged OFC Kawlkulh - Khawzawl- 34.9 BSNL, RailTel MZSD 5 damage Khawzawl- Champai 41.3 BSNL d to be laid on aerial, 207 is road 4 distance between the Champai Aizawl - 207 nodes New Aerial Aizawl - Lengpui- 35 10 u New 1 MZSD 6 Lengpui- Mamit 60 10 u New 1 Mamit Aizawl - 95.0 a New Aerial 2 MZSD 7 Aizawl - Kawnpui - 55 u BSNL

56 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator Remarks No. r & U/g or Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc Kawnpui - Kolasib 25 u BSNL Kolasib Aizawl - 80.0 a New Aerial 1 1280.6 697.0 50.0 18 4 No. of DHQs 8 No. of DXC 4 DXC at Aizawl, Serchipp, Lunglei, lawngtlai No. of OADM 4 No. of OA 18

57 | P a g e Manipur There are 9 districts in Manipur state with Imphal as its State Headquarter, which is further divided into Imphal East and Imphal West. There are three rings planned in Manipur to provide state to district connectivity. The details of rings along with map are given in Table 6 below.

 In the 1st ring covering Ukhrul, Imphal East & West, Senapati and Tamenglong, it is seen that BSNL ‘s fiber is existing and the gap from Tamenglong to Imphal West via Noney is also partly covered under USOF NE scheme. The section where new fiber will be required is from Nongpoh (Tamei Road) – Patsoi (113 km)

 In the second ring which covers Bishnupur, Churanchandrapur, Thoubal, the fiber is either existing BSNL route or partly subsidized in planning of USOF NE, only the section of new fiber identified is from Sangaikot – Langching (7.7 km).

 The Chandel district has linear connectivity on road, and while planning the District to sub-district scheme for USOF in Manipur, BSNL existing network in Chandel was considered. The fiber route from Chapikarong – Chandel is identified as new fiber required and already subsidized in USOF NE planning.

The respective maps are given in KML 21 to KML 23.

58 | P a g e Table 6A: Manipur State to District OFC ring S.No Ring No. of district of Name Districts Route Redundancy Existing Section Operator Reference New Sections Reference Length Remarks Manipur to State District Ring) (MSD 1 Imphal East 5 Imphal Option Imphal East - BSNL TRAI Nongpoh 113 MASD-1 - Ukhrul - East,Ukhrul, 1 Ukhrul - Tadubi - (Tamei km Tadubi - Senapati,Ta Senapati - Road) - Senapati - menglong Tamenglong Patsoi Tamenglon ,Imphal g - Imphal West West - East Tamenglong - RailTel USOF NE Nongpoh (Tamei Planning road) Patsoi - Imphal RailTel USOF NE West - Imphal Planning East 2 Imphal 3 Bishnupur, Option1 Imphal West - BSNL TRAI Sangaikot - 7.7 MASD-2 West - Thoubal, Bishnupur- Langching km Bishnupur- Churachand Churanchandrap churancha rapur ur ndrapur - Sangaikot - Langching - Kakching - Thoubal - Imphal East - Imphal West

59 | P a g e S.No Ring No. of district of Name Districts Route Redundancy Existing Section Operator Reference New Sections Reference Length Remarks Manipur to State District Ring) (MSD Churanchandrap RailTel USOF NE ur - Sangaikot Planning Langching - RailTel USOF NE Kakching Planning Kakching - BSNL TRAI Thoubal -Imphal East - Imphal West 3 Chandel - 1 Chandel Option1 Chandel - BSNL USOF NE MASD-3 Khongjoy - Khongjoy -Palel Planning Palel - - kakching - kakching - Chapikarong Chapikaron g – Chandel Chapikarong - RailTel USOF NE Fiber cost is Chandel Planning subsidized on this route in USOF NE planning, however no road appears directly from Chapikarong - Chandel. Microwave connectivity may be possible.

60 | P a g e TABLE 6B: Manipur State To District Equipment Planning

Manipur State to District Ring OFC Distance Equipment Provision OFC (KM) Inter- Required Ring No. From To Operator Remarks Operator & U/g or Existing New OA DXC coiling etc Aerial Imphal East - Ukhrul - 83.1 BSNL 1 - Ukhrul - Tadubi - 178 BSNL Tadubi - Senapati - 39 BSNL MASD 1 Senapati - Tamenglong 137 BSNL Tamenglong Imphal West 51 113 10 u/g BSNL, New 2 Note 1 Imphal West Imphal East 15.4 Railtel ImphalWest - Bishnupur 23.2 BSNL Bishnupur churanchandrapur 33.9 BSNL churanchandrapur Sangaikot - 20.1 10 Railtel 1 Sangaikot - Langching - 7.7 10 u/g New 2 MASD 2 Langching - Kakching - 29.3 Railtel Kakching - Thoubal - 25.3 10 BSNL 1 Thoubal - Imphal East 28.3 BSNL Imphal East Imphal West 15.5 BSNL MASD 3 Chandel - Khongjoy - 98.4 BSNL Khongjoy - Palel - 44.9 BSNL Palel - kakching - 7.8 BSNL kakching - Chapikarong 42.3 BSNL Chapikarong Chandel 104 10 Railtel 1 Total 976.5 120.7 50 0 7 1 Note 1

61 | P a g e No. of DHQs 9 No. of DXC 1 DXC at Imphal West No. of OADM 8 No. of OA 7

62 | P a g e Nagaland The Nagaland State has 11 districts with state headquarter at Dimapur. BSNL‘s fiber is reaching all the districts as appears from the NIC database and TRAI report referred. The rings are planned to provide route diversity to all the districts with state headquarter at Dimapur. In the four rings planned as shown in table 7 below, there are two sections where new fiber is required are as Zunheboto – Akuloto (30 km)– BSNL damaged section as per TRAI report and Mon to Longleng (84 km). Peren district is already linearly connected with Dimapur as per NIC data; however it is also covered in USOF NE planning where it is SDHQ of Kohima and a ring is planned through it. As per Google earth no direct road connectivity is appearing but as fiber km is subsidized and so the selected operator for NE i.e. RailTel shall provide connectivity on alternate media i.e. fiber or microwave.

The respective rings are given as KML 24 to KML 26 in Annexure 1.

63 | P a g e Table 7A: Nagaland State to District OFC Rings Ring No. Ring Ring No. of district of Name Districts Route Redundancy Existing Section Operator Reference New Sections Reference Length Remarks Nagaland to State (TSD District Ring) 1 Dimapur - 8 Dimapur,Ko Option 1 Entire ring BSNL TRAI, The Kipphire to NSD-1 Kohima - hima,Phek,K &RailTel NIC, Tuisang section is Phek - ipphire,Long USOF seen existing in NIC Kipphire - leng, NE data on BSNL and it Tuesang - Tuesang Plannin is also partly Longleng - ,Mokochung g subsidized in USOF Mokochung , Wokha- NE scheme. The - Wokha- Tuesang to Longleng Niuland - to Mokochung is Dimpaur also subsidized in USOF NE Scheme. 2 Dimapur - 5 Dimapur, Option 2 Dimapur - BSNL TRAI, Zunehobot Googl 30 The Zunehoto - NSD-2 Kohima- Kohima, Kohima- NIC, o - Akuloto e map km Akuloto section Zunehoboto Zunehoboto Zunehobot USOF exists as per USOF - , o & NE NE planning data Mokochung Mokochung, Akuloto - Plannig but as per TRAI - Wokha - wokha Mokochun report (Nagaland Niuland - g - Wokha - Map) & NIC this Dimapur Niuland - section is damaged Dimapur and not existing. 3 Dimapur - 4 Kohima, Option 3 Dimapur - BSNL & TRAI, Longleng Googl 84 Mon to Sonari is NSD-3 Kohima- Wokha, Kohima- RailTel NIC, to Mon e map km already subsidized Wokha- Mokochung, Wokha- USOF in Mon planning in Mokochung Longleng, Mokochun NE NE scheme. Rest is - Longleng - Mon g - Plannin existing on BSNL

64 | P a g e Ring No. Ring Ring No. of district of Name Districts Route Redundancy Existing Section Operator Reference New Sections Reference Length Remarks Nagaland to State (TSD District Ring) Mon- Longleng & g Sonari- Mon- Mariani- Gorgaon - Golgahat- Sonari- Dimapur Golgahat- Dimapur 4 Kohima - 2 Kohima, Option 1 Dimapur - BSNL NIC This ring is planned Sechu - Peren Peren in USOF NE scheme Jalukie _ to connect Kohima Athibung - SDHQs. And so fiber Nsong _ is subsidized. Tening - However if road Peren - Pedi connectivity is not - New Galli - possible then the Ngwalwa - operator will have Kohima to go for aerial fiber or microwave. In either way, Peren DHQ will get connected with Kohima and provide a redundant path.

65 | P a g e TABLE 7B: Nagaland State to District Equipment Planning

OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator Remarks No. r & U/g or Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc Dimapur - Kohima - 73.7 BSNL 1 DXC at Dimapur Kohima - Phek - 119 BSNL Phek - Kipphire - 138 BSNL Kipphire - Tuesang - 125 BSNL 1 NSD 1 Tuesang - Longleng - 77.1 10 RailTel Mokochun Longleng - g - 95.7 RailTel Mokochung - Wokha- 68.2 10 BSNL 1 Wokha- Niuland - 112 BSNL Niuland - Dimpaur 30.2 BSNL Dimapur - Kohima- 73.7 BSNL 1 DXC at Kohima Zunehobot Kohima- o - 142 BSNL Zunehoboto Mokochun BSNL NSD 2 - g - 33 30 u/g damaged Mokochung - Wokha - 68.2 BSNL Wokha - Niuland - 112 BSNL Niuland - Dimapur 30.2 BSNL Dimapur - Kohima- 73.7 BSNL NSD 3 Kohima- Wokha- 75.9 BSNL Mokochun DXC at 1 Wokha- g - 68.2 BSNL Mokochng

66 | P a g e OFC Distance Provisio OFC Equipment Required (Km) n Inter- Ring Operato From To Operator Remarks No. r & U/g or Existing New OA DXC coiling Aerial etc Mokochung - Longleng - 95.7 BSNL 1 DXC at Longleng Longleng - Mon- 84 10 u/g New 1 Mon- Sonari- 52.4 RailTel Sonari- Mariani- 105 10 BSNL 1 Mariani- Golgahat- 51.8 BSNL Golgahat- Dimapur 83.8 BSNL Kohima - Sechu - RailTel Sechu - jalukie _ RailTel jalukie _ Athibung - RailTel Athibung - Nsong _ RailTel Nsong _ Tening - RailTel NSD 4 Tening - Peren - RailTel Peren - Pedi - RailTel Pedi - New Galli - RailTel New Galli - Ngwalwa - RailTel Ngwalwa - Kohima RailTel Total 1904.5 114 40 4 4 No. of DHQs 11 No. of DXC 4 DXC at Dimapur, Kohima, Longleng, Mokocheng No. of OADM 7 No. of OA 4

67 | P a g e Arunachal Pradesh The Arunachal Pradesh State has 16 districts, with Itanagar as its capital. It has got difficult terrain not all the districts can be planned in ring to have redundant routes. As Arunachal Pradesh has difficult terrain, laying of OFC may not be afeasible option. Therefore option for laying aerial OFC either on OPGW orADSS based technology has to be explored. The actual requirement of Underground OFC or OPGW orADSS cable can be assessed only after a detailed field survey.

There are 6 districts which have to be connected on linear path on fiber and route redundancy on fiber can only be obtained by laying aerial & u/g fiber both on the same road. These districts are Anini, Hawai, Yingkhiong, Koloriang, Bomdila & Tawang, some of these are already considered in USOF NE planning and so fiber is subsidized under USOF NE scheme. In the remaining new sections required are: Along – Yingkiong (220 km. – u/g & aerial) and Dirang –Jang (107 km)

The rest of the districts are planned with Itanagar to Tezpur ring via Assam and a sub-ring around Tinsukia to cover Changleng & Khonsa DHQs. The details of rings are given in table 8 below.

New Sections required as analyzed using TRAI map, NIC and USOF NE & Assam Schemes ring-wise are:

 Ring for Itanagar, Ziro, Daporijo, Along, Pasghat, Roing, Tezu has following new sections as Along – Pangin (75 km), Pasighat - Dambuk (58 km)& Tezu - Parsuram Kund (45 km)  Ring for Changlang & Khonsa DHQs has new sections as: Margherita - Namtok (19 km), Chnaglong - Khonsa (117 km) and Khonsa- Deomali (46 km) .  Ring for Seppa DHQs has new sections as : Nirjuli - Pakke keshang (102 km) , Seppa _ Bhalukpong (T point) (125 km), Bhalukpong – Chariduar (31km)

The capacity aspect on these rings are done by equipment planning on 40 lambda, 2.5 G DWDM rings as per the methodology explained in previous chapter under “Backhaul equipment planning”.

68 | P a g e Table 8A: Arunachal Pradesh State to District OFC Rings

Arunachal Pradesh State to District Ring Analysis Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of Districts of Name Redundancy Route Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks to ArunachalState Ring) (TSD District 1 Itanagar - Ziro - 7 Itanagar option Along - 75 km Pasight-Pangin covered in ARSD -1 Daporijo - Along - , Ziro, 1 Pangin USOF NE pasighat - roing - Daporij, Tezu - Tinsukia - Along, Dibrugarh - Jorhat - Pasigha, Tezpur - Itanagar Roing, Tezu Pasighat - 58 km Dambuk - Roing covered in Dambuk USOF NE Tezu - 45 km Parsuram Kund - Namsai Parsuram existing Kund 2 Itanagar - Ziro - 5 Itanagar Opt 2 Along - covered ARSD-2 Daporijo - Along - , Pangin above pasighat-Jonai - Ziro,Dap Dhemaji - North orijo, lakhimpur - Nirjuli - Along,P Itanagar asighat

69 | P a g e Arunachal Pradesh State to District Ring Analysis Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of Districts of Name Redundancy Route Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks to ArunachalState Ring) (TSD District 3 Tinsukia- Margherita 2 Changla Opt 1 Margherita - 19 km Tinsukia - Margherita covered ARSD-3 - Namtok - ng , Namtok in Assam and existing and the Changlang - Khonsa Khonsa section Changlang to Namtok - Deomali - is subsidized in USOF NE Naharkatia - scheme, Namtok is SDHQ of Tinsukia Changlang Chnaglong - 117 km Khonsa Khonsa- 46km Tinsukia - Naharkatia-Deomali Deomali exists on BSNL.

4 Roing to Anini 1 Anini Opt 1 Roing Rail USOF Roing to TRAI 204km. Assuming Railtel will lay fiber ARSD- 4 to Tel NE Anini Rep undreground under USF NE, Anini scheme ort Aerial fiber is suggested as an alternat epath (aerial fiber km is subject to field survey)

5 Tezu - Hawai 1 Hawai Opt 1 Tezu Rail USOF Tezu - TRAI 161km. Assuming Railtel will lay fiber ARSD- 4 - Tel NE Hawai Rep undreground under USF NE, Hawa scheme ort Aerial fiber is suggested as an i alternat epath (aerial fiber km

70 | P a g e Arunachal Pradesh State to District Ring Analysis Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of Districts of Name Redundancy Route Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks to ArunachalState Ring) (TSD District is subject to field survey)

6 Along - Yingkiong 1 Yingkion Opt 1 Along - Goo 110 km. ARSD- 4 g Yingkiong gle eart h

Along - TRAI 110 km. Because of single road is Yingkiong Rep there both U/g & aerial is ort suggested. Aerial length is subject to field survey.

7 Ziro - Koloriang 1 Kolorian Opt 1 Ziro - Rail USOF Subsidized in USF NE Scheme ARSD- 4 g Kolori Tel NE in Lower Subansiri District. ang scheme Ziro - TRAI 164 km. Assuming Railtel will lay fiber Koloriang Rep undreground under USF NE, ort Aerial fiber is suggested as an alternat epath (aerial fiber km is subject to field survey)

71 | P a g e Arunachal Pradesh State to District Ring Analysis Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of Districts of Name Redundancy Route Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks to ArunachalState Ring) (TSD District 8 Itanagar - Nirjuli - 1 Seppa Opt 1 Itana BS TRAI Nirjuli - 102 km ARSD – 5 Pakkekeshang - gar - NL Pakke Seppa - Bhalukpong Nirjul keshang - Chariduar - Tezpur i -Itanagar

Pakke Rail USOF Seppa _ 125 km kesha Tel NE Bhalukpong ng - scheme (T point) Sepp a Chari BS TRAI, Bhalukpong 31km duar NL USOF – Chariduar - Assam Tezp ur - Itana gar

9 Bhalukpong - 2 Bomdila option Chariduar - cove ARSD – 5 Bomdila- Dirang - , 1 Bhalukpong red Jang -Tawang Tawang abov e

72 | P a g e Arunachal Pradesh State to District Ring Analysis Ring No. Ring Ring district No. of Districts of Name Redundancy Route Section Existing Operator Reference Sections New Reference Length Remarks to ArunachalState Ring) (TSD District Bhalu Rail USOF Dirang -Jang 107 km kpon Tel NE g - Scheme Bomd ila- Diran g Jang - Rail USOF Tawa Tel NE ng Scheme

73 | P a g e TABLE 8B:Arunachal Pradesh State to District Equipment Planning

Existing Equipment OFC OFC Provisio Required n Inter- Distance New Ring Operato Operat From To (KM) OFC Remarks No. r & U/g or or (KM) OA DXC coiling Aerial etc

DXC at Itanagar, Bhalukpong, Along, 112 Passighat, Tezpur and Itanagar Ziro BSNL 1 Tinsukia Ziro Daporijo - 159 BSNL Daporijo - Along - 147 BSNL 1 Along -Panign (new 75 10 U/g 75km.) & Panign - ARSD 1 Pasighat (covered in Along - Panign New 2 USF NE Panign pasighat - 19.5 RailTel Pasighat - Dambuk (New 58 km.), 58 10 U/g Dambuk - Roing pasighat - Dambuk New 2 (coverd in USF NE) Dambuk roing - 24.6 RailTel roing - Tezu - 68.2 10 BSNL 1

74 | P a g e Existing Equipment OFC OFC Provisio Required n Inter- Distance New Ring Operato Operat From To (KM) OFC Remarks No. r & U/g or or (KM) OA DXC coiling Aerial etc

Tezu -Parsuram Kund (New 45 km.) & Parsuram Kund - 45 10 U/g Namsai-Tinsukia via Parsuram DumDuma (BSNL Tezu - Kund New 2 Existing) Parsuram 64 Kund Tinsukia - BSNL 1 Tinsukia - Dibrugarh - 83.5 BSNL Dibrugarh - Jorhat 139 BSNL Jorhat tezpur 167 BSNL 1 tezpur Itanagar 166 BSNL Itanagar - Ziro 112 BSNL Ziro Daporijo - 159 BSNL Daporijo - Along - 147 BSNL New, 94.5 Along - pasighat- RailTel 1 ARSD 2 pasighat- Jonai 35.9 BSNL Jonai Dhemaji - 101 BSNL North 195 Dhemaji - lakhimpur BSNL North 41.3 lakhimpur - Nirjuli - BSNL

75 | P a g e Existing Equipment OFC OFC Provisio Required n Inter- Distance New Ring Operato Operat From To (KM) OFC Remarks No. r & U/g or or (KM) OA DXC coiling Aerial etc

Nirjuli - Itanagar 21.2 BSNL Tinsukia- Margherita - 63.3 BSNL 1 Margherita - Namtok - 19 10 U/g New 1 Namtok - Changlang - 26.8 Railtel ARSD 3 Changlang - Khonsa - 117 10 U/g New 2 Khonsa - Deomali - 46 10 U/g New 1 Deomali - Naharkatia - 21.2 BSNL Naharkatia - Tinsukia 70.4 BSNL RailTel, ARSD 4 204 204 Aerial Roing Anini New 4 Note 1 RailTel, ARSD 4 161 161 Aerial Tezu - Hawai New 3 Note 1 U/G and ARSD 4 220 Along - Yingkiong aerial New 5 Note 2 RailTel, ARSD 4 164 164 Aerial Ziro - Koloriang New 3 Note 1 Itanagar - Nirjuli - 21.2 BSNL 1 Note 1 Pakke 102 10 U/G Nirjuli - keshang New 3 ARSD 5 Pakke 91.5 U/g keshang Seppa - Railtel Bhalukpong 125 10 U/g Seppa - - New 3 1

76 | P a g e Existing Equipment OFC OFC Provisio Required n Inter- Distance New Ring Operato Operat From To (KM) OFC Remarks No. r & U/g or or (KM) OA DXC coiling Aerial etc

Bhalukpong 31 10 U/g - Chariduar - New 1 Chariduar - Tezpur - 26.5 BSNL Tezpur - Itanagar 163 BSNL Bhalukpong 98.3 - Bomdila- Railtel Bomdila- Dirang - 33.6 Railtel 1 ARSD 5 OA(2 in new & 1 at 107 10 U/g Dirang - Jang - New 3 jang) Jang - Tawang 96 Railtel Total 3297.5 1474 110 39 6 Note 1 Note 2 No. of DHQs 16 No. of DXC 6 No. of OADM 10 No. of OA 39

77 | P a g e Sikkim The Sikkim state has 4 districts viz. North, South, East and West Sikkim with headquarters at Mangan, Namchi, Gangtok & Geyzing respectively. Gangtok is the state capital. The updated data of underground fiber in Sikkim is not readily available. As per TRAI report, the new fiber required is between Mangan to Geyshing (115km) and the ring is formed connecting all the four districts Gangtok – Namchi – Geyshing – Mangan – Gangtok. The same is considered for CAPEX estimation here.

The equipment planning capacity is done for the ring above with one DXC proposed at Gangtok, 3 Optical Add Drop Multiplexers (OADMs) at the rest of three headquarters, and 2 (Optical Amplifiers) OAs at the new fiber route (repeater distance 40 km. taken ).

78 | P a g e Sikkim State to District Ring

Provision Equipment OFC New Inter- Required Existing Ring No. From To OFC Operator Operator Reference Remarks OFC U/g or (km) & coiling OA DXC Aerial etc TRAI 1 Gangtok Mangan 64 BSNL Report TRAI 115 10 2 Mangan Geyzing U/g New Report SSD 1 TRAI Geyzing Namchi 60 BSNL Report TRAI Namchi Gangtok 76 BSNL Report 200 115 10 Total 2 1

No. of DHQs 4 No. of DXC 1 DXC at Gangtok No. of OADM 3 No. of OA 2

79 | P a g e Details of Operator Fiber km. –Existing & New

New Fiber (km.) Existing Operator Fiber (km.) RailTel Fiber No.of S.No (to be State distric . laid ts BSNL under Total Dam RailTel USF PGCI Fiber u/g aged Aerial BSNL Existing NE) L (km.) 3533. 1 Assam 27 158 70 6 39 - - 3800.6 1787. 2 Meghalaya 11 123 0 5 - 127 95.8 2133.3 3 Mizoram 8 265 100 382 306.1 - 974.1 - 2027.2 4 Tripura 8 76 0 673.2 - 165 - 914.2 5 Manipur 9 170.7 0 807.7 - 168.8 - 1147.2 1679. 6 Nagaland 11 124 30 0 3 - 225.2 - 2058.5 2283. 7 Arunachal 16 945 639 7 - 1013.8 - 4881.5 8 Sikkim 4 125 0 200 - - - 325

Total 94 1986.7 130 1091 5950 0 2673.9 95.8 11,927

Recommendation for North East - State To District Ring Connectivity The analysis of state to district rings in the six NE state and Sikkim shows that mostly fiber exists on BSNL and the rest of the sections are already funded in the USOF NE project. Some key sections are also available on PGCIL OPGW network as given in tables above. The fiber funded under USOF NE project is however subject to rollout completion by RailTel. To provide the bandwidth availability at nominal rates for state to district ring connectivity in subsidy may be provided and one of the following approach may be taken:

 The existing dominant operators BSNL,RailTel and PGCIL are provided additional subsidy on their existing sections and for new fiber and mandate the bandwidth lease at lower tariff. The incumbent operators may sign an agreement among themselves so as make use of the existing fiber of each other (fiber swapping / bandwidth swaping).  The factor of lease on entire existing fiber on IRU basis may be taken and including the new fiber laying cost while calculating the subsidy and provided through tender to any operator who provides bandwidth from state to district at reduced tariff as prescribed in the tender. This will ensure a level playing field for all operators.

80 | P a g e 4.10 CAPITAL EXPENDITURE North East region has generally tough terrain and subject to problems of landslide fiber cut, and some remote places are naxal and insurgency prone area. Therefore option for laying aerial OFC either on OPGW or ADSS based technology has to be explored. Though per KM cost for OPGW cable is Rs 3 lakh, ADSS cable is Rs 5 lakh and underground OFC rate varies from section to section depending on soil (rocky, soft & hard) in NER, however, for budgetary investment requirement an average cost of Rs 8 lakh per KM is taken. It does not include RoW, as it varies from state to state.

The estimated cost in the table below is the new fiber required to complete physical rings required between state to state and state to district less the existing fiber available as per NIC and TRAI report and the sections where subsidy is already provided through USOF Assam & NE schemes for District to Sub district connectivity. The actual requirement of Underground OFC or OPGW or ADSS cable can be assessed only after a detailed field survey.

New OFC (km.) OFC Cost (RS) No. of Sl. No. State BSNL Total Cost (Rs) Districts U/g aerial u/g aerial Damaged

12.64 5.60 18.24 1 Assam 27 158 70 9.84 0.00 9.84 2 Meghalaya 11 123 0 29.20 30.56 59.76 3 Mizoram 8 265 100 382 6.08 0.00 6.08 4 Tripura 8 76 0 13.66 0.00 13.66 5 Manipur 9 171 0 12.32 0.00 12.32 6 Nagaland 11 124 30 0 75.60 51.12 126.72 7 Arunachal 16 945 639 10.00 0.00 10.00 8 Sikkim 4 125 0 169.34 87.28 256.62 Total 94 1987 130 1091

Note: The OFC laying cost Rs. 8 lakhs per km taken is a budgetary cost. Although the supply cost of 24F OFC is approximately Rs. 48,000 per km but the commissioning cost varies depending on the terrain and ROW. Hence due to difficult terrain the supply plus commissioning cost of OFC is taken as Rs. 8 lakhs per km excluding RoW charges. The above cost includes all taxes and duties except Octroi and local taxes.

81 | P a g e Equipment Summary

Equipment Equipment Cost (RS) Quantity Total Cost Total Cost Sl. No. State (in Rs (Rs) OA OADM DXC OA OADM DXC Crores)

6.85 1 Assam 5 24 3 2,500,000 36,000,000 30,000,000 68,500,000 2.85 2 Meghalaya 7 10 1 3,500,000 15,000,000 10,000,000 28,500,000 5.50 3 Mizoram 18 4 4 9,000,000 6,000,000 40,000,000 55,000,000 4.90 4 Tripura 6 7 1 3,000,000 6,000,000 40,000,000 49,000,000 2.55 5 Manipur 7 8 1 3,500,000 12,000,000 10,000,000 25,500,000 5.25 6 Nagaland 4 7 4 2,000,000 10,500,000 40,000,000 52,500,000 9.45 7 Arunachal 39 10 6 19,500,000 15,000,000 60,000,000 94,500,000 1.55 8 Sikkim 2 3 1 1,000,000 4,500,000 10,000,000 15,500,000 Total 88 73 21 44,000,000 109,500,000 210,000,000 363,500,000 38.90 Unit Costs In Rs OA 500,000 OADM 1,500,000 DXC 10,000,000 Notes:

82 | P a g e For OADM cost, it is assumed that 40 lambda ROADM costs around $ 11000 i.e. approx 7 lakh plus for dropping/adding 2 lambdas, 4 transponders are required. The cost of each transponder is approx 1.5 lakh. Hence we assume a total cost of 15 lakh for 1 OADM for budgetary purpose. Actual cost shall be arrived through tender process. Optical Amplifier shall wok as a regenerator and it is deployed at stations where distance between two OADMs has exceeded 40 Km. The budgetary cost is taken as 5 lakh per OA. Digital Cross Connect (DXC) is assumed to be of 40 lambda capacity. The functionality includes OADM and Inter district ring traffic routing. Cost is taken as Rs 1 Crore per DXC as budgetary estimate. All the above costs are inclusive of taxes and duties except Octroi and local taxes.

83 | P a g e 4.11 OPERATING EXPENDITURE Successful telecom business is very much about keeping operation and maintenance costs low. Depending on network design, the maintenance and operations can be more complex, more labor intensive, more prone to human mistakes and therefore more costly.

With the robust growth of SDH worldwide, many O&M issues have arisen. In particular, commissioning and maintenance of equipment is a critical issue. Maintenance involves routine maintenance and fault locating.

4. 11.1 Operating Expenses

The operating costs depend upon the organization structure and the nature of work carried out. The operation and maintenance has been organized under two main heads namely Establishment & Manpower. The establishment head includes the below listed items:

o Office Rent/ Lease. o Electricity o Security o General Maintenance, Water Charges, cleaning, Miscellaneous, Staff Welfare etc. o Telephone, Fax, Internet, Conferencing o Bandwidth costs for Office Operation incl. NOC o Stationary , postage etc o Vehicle 4.11.2 O&M manpower

 O&M teams and their functions

The O&M office will administrate number of equipment and OFC maintenance teams. O&M implies following functions/activities:

 Preventive maintenance  Breakdown maintenance  Configuration/ re-configuration/ upgradation/ expansion  Arranging for shipping of defective equipment for repair  Arranging to up keep test and measuring equipment, their repair and calibration  Periodic functional and electrical testing as required

The O&M team personnel shall also supervise and carry out acceptance testing in rollout phase. The strategy should be for commercial utilization to begin as

84 | P a g e soon as parts of networks are rolled out. This requires advance planning with industry, stake-holders, and potential customers and initiate ‘soft launch’ which means running live traffic and services without charging and helps to de-bug the equipment and processes and builds up customer confidence.

 OFC team composition

The planning of OFC teams is done on basis of approximately 250 km OFC spread per maintenance team.

Planning for 4 hour or 6 hour average restoration time in rural areas would mean very high cost of operating expenses and about 12 hour typical restoration time would be economically possible comprising of average 6 to 8 hour travelling time and 4 hour splicing time subject to weather conditions and other logistics. 6 to 8 hour travelling time implies travelling distance of 240 km approx. Therefore Splicing technicians are planned, each supported by two semi-skilled workmen for cable handling etc. Based on above discussion total personnel proposed are:

 Splicer – 1  Workmen – 2

 Equipment team composition

The equipment team planning is economically done on basis of 1 team per state. This distance is not too much considering that NOC can also do many control, monitoring and configuration functions.

Each team will be responsible for the assigned state head quarter and the all the districts headquarters of the state including the ring configuration.

For routine maintenance at SDH node like battery up keep, attending to power supply faults, minor intervention in equipment it is proposed to have one engineer/team.

Based on above the total personnel proposed are:

 Dy. M/ A.M. (SDH) – 1 for a state  Engineer (Diploma) - 2  Technician

85 | P a g e Eqpt. O&M Cost/ per team Qty. per team Unit per budgetary No. Item Unit year Cost Cost / Year Team Description: Team for Eqpt. configuration, bandwidth provisioning end-end-end basis for customer traffic, eqpt. O&M procedures, periodical testing, battery + power plant + earth system O&M procedures, supporting customer in technical interconnections, maintaining SLA

1 Manpower: 1.1 Engineer (1 per team) Manmonth 12 80,000 960,000 1.2 Regular Helper Manmonth 12 15,000 180,000 Sub-total 1,140,000 2 Vehicle

2.1 New Vehicle net of resale cost (5 yr. period) set 0.2 450,000 90,000

Fuel Liters (diesel) provision for 100 Km per day and 10 Km per liter i.e. 10 liter per day 2.2 equivalent to 10x30x12 = 3600 liter Liter 3600 70 252,000

2.3 Maintenance cost provision averaged over a year incl. Spares set 100,000 2.4 Driver Manmonth 12 15,000 180,000 Sub-total 622,000

Total O&M cost excluding cost of test instruments) 1,762,000

86 | P a g e ESTIMATED ANNUAL OFC MAINTENANCE COST PER TEAM Qty. per team Unit per budgetary No. Item Unit year Cost Cost / Year Team Description: Team for OFC preventive and breakdown maintenance regular route patrolling fully equipped with vehicle, splicing machine, OTDR, consumables, spare joint boxes and interruption cables, FO tool box and other accessories required. 1 Manpower:

1.1 Engineer splicer Manmonth 12 80,000 960,000

1.2 Regular Helper (semi skilled work men) Manmonth 24 15,000 360,000 1.3 Casual Labour for route works during maintenance Mandays 100 500 50,000 Sub-total 1,370,000 2 Vehicle 2.1 New Splicing Vehicle net of resale cost (5 yr. period) set 0.2 500,000 100,000 Fuel Litres (diesel) provision for 150 Km per day and 10 Km per liter i.e. 15 2.2 litre per day equivalent to 15x30x12 = 5400 liter Liter 5400 70 378,000 2.3 Maintenance cost provision averaged over a year incl. Spares set 100,000

2.4 Driver Manmonth 12 15,000 180,000 Sub-total 758,000 3 Tools and instrument 3.1 New Splicing machine cost divided over 5 yrs. period set 0.2 500,000 100,000 3.2 New OTDR cost divided over 5 yrs. period set 0.2 400,000 80,000

87 | P a g e 3.3 Splicing consummable per month set 12 200 2,400 3.4 F.O. Tool Box cost divided over 5 yr. period set 0.2 150,000 30,000 3.5 Miscellaneous accessories cost divided over 5 yrs. Period set 0.2 5,000 1,000 Sub-total 213,400 4 Spares 4.1 Spare Joint boxes no. 10 3,000 30,000 4.2 OFC (for maintenance work) Km 0 - Total direct cost per fully equipped team 2,371,400

Recommendation on OPEX

The costs given above for OFC & Equipment maintenance team are per team annual costs. Since the new OFC planned in transmission media is sparsely spread and is not on a continuous stretch, a separate team provisioning for maintenance of the same shall be uneconomical. In most of the cases the dominant operator in a state shall be rolling out the incremental OFC and the existing O&M team and resources shall suffice for the maintenance of the incremental part. The O&M costs being high in North Eastern States, adequate provisioning of this may be considered while calculating thesubsidy component.

However, BSNL and RailTelunder USOF Assam & NE projects have already been allotted subsidy which has considered the high OPEX costs. Therefore this shall cover the state to state & State to district portion also. As same fiber & equipment maintenance team may be used to maintain the infrastructure.

88 | P a g e 5. COVERAGE FOR UNCOVERED NATIONAL HIGHWAYS (NH) OF NORTH EAST STATES OF INDIA

5.1 Introduction: Based on the TRAI Recommendations dated Sep 2013, in this chapter analysis is done for providing 2G Coverage for uncovered NH of NE states which include Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh. The state, Sikkim was also considered for arriving at the CAPEX for the same. The NH network in the above mentioned states is of 8480 Km in length (Reference Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region; http://www.mdoner.gov.in/content/national- highways). As per data available at NIC it is found that 1272 Km of the Highways has no 2G coverage which is 15% of 8480 Km of highway. The NH no. 229 of 1090 Km length in Arunachal Pradesh could not be located in the NIC database hence extrapolated considering 3 Km per BTS with the assumption based on 50% area uncovered as per TRAI report. The state wise detail of uncovered NH is given below in tabular format.

Table: 5.1

Total Uncovered No. of Length in Length in Uncovered BTS S.No. NH State Km Km Length in % required 1 31 Assam 322 0 0.00 0.00 2 31-A Sikkim 62 4 6.45 1.00 3 31-B Assam 19 0 0.00 0.00 4 31-C Assam 93 0 0.00 0.00 5 36 Assam 167 36 21.56 6.00 6 36 Nagaland 3 0 0.00 0.00 7 37 Assam 680 2 0.29 1.00 Arunachal 8 37 Pradesh 60 0 0.00 0.00 9 37-A Assam 23 0 0.00 0.00 10 38 Assam 54 0 0.00 0.00 11 39 Assam 115 5 4.35 1.00 12 39 Nagaland 110 6 5.45 1.00 13 39 Manipur 211 0 0.00 0.00 14 40 Meghalaya 216 0 0.00 0.00 15 44 Assam 111 0 0.00 0.00 16 44 Tripura 335 20 5.97 5.00 17 44 Meghalaya 277 6 2.17 2.00

89 | P a g e Total Uncovered No. of Length in Length in Uncovered BTS S.No. NH State Km Km Length in % required 18 44-A Tripura 65 8 12.31 1.00 19 44-A Mizoram 165 16 9.70 2.00 20 51 Assam 22 0 0.00 0.00 21 51 Meghalaya 127 0 0.00 0.00 22 52 Assam 540 5 0.93 1.00 Arunachal 23 52 Pradesh 310 44 14.19 9.00 24 52-A Assam 15 0 0.00 0.00 Arunachal 25 52-A Pradesh 42 0 0.00 0.00 26 52-B Assam 31 13 41.94 3.00 Arunachal 27 52-B Pradesh 450 0 0.00 0.00 28 53 Assam 100 0 0.00 0.00 29 53 Manipur 220 97 44.09 16.00 30 54 Assam 335 70 20.90 11.00 31 54 Mizoram 515 22 4.27 4.00 32 54-A Mizoram 9 0 0.00 0.00 33 54-B Mizoram 27 8 29.63 2.00 34 61 Assam 20 0 0.00 0.00 35 61 Nagaland 220 62 28.18 10.00 36 62 Assam 5 0 0.00 0.00 37 62 Meghalaya 190 34 17.89 7.00 38 150 Nagaland 36 8 22.22 1.00 39 150 Manipur 523 114 21.80 18.00 40 150 Mizoram 141 8 5.67 1.00 41 151 Assam 14 0 0.00 0.00 42 152 Assam 40 0 0.00 0.00 43 153 Assam 20 0 0.00 0.00 Arunachal 44 153 Pradesh 40 8 20.00 1.00 45 154 Assam 110 0 0.00 0.00 46 154 Mizoram 70 20 28.57 3.00 47 155 Nagaland 125 111 88.80 17.00 48 155 Manipur 5 0 0.00 0.00 Arunachal 49 229 Pradesh 1090 545 50 109 8480 1272 15.00 233

90 | P a g e It is mandated by TRAI that there be complete 2G coverage on the National Highway network of the above states in North Eastern region. Bench marking of BTS requirement along with its capacity and infrastructure cost has been studied and reported below. GSM was taken for study as the same is wide spread in NE area however the TSPs can use CDMA technology also.

5.2 Assumptions: The assumptions used to arrive at the CAPEX required for providing the NH 2G coverage are as given below,

a.) Requirement of BTS are calculated irrespective of any particular operator. b.) Though coverage are to be given on Highways but keeping in mind the topography of North east area Highways were treated as dense forest and hilly areas where line of sight is limited to maximum of 3.25 Km on the Highways. c.) Cost of Land is not considered as it is understood that land will be provided by state government.

5.3 References: The reference documents used are, a.) TRAI recommendations dated Sep 2013. b.) Report on USOF scheme for uncovered villages and National Highways. c.) The current 2G infra-structure data of various service providers available on NIC GIS system. d.) Cost Reference: Vendor costs, Ministry of Renewable energy and BSNL tender No CA/NOW-CM/LWE-BSS/T-445 for setting up of 2G infrastructure.

5.4 Methodology: The GIS data was studied and analyzed and based on design guidelines the numbers of site were arrived at.

BSS planning

While planning low power BTS (micro BTS) were consider as power requirement is the key factor for areas without grid power. BTS was categorized as per coverage and population followed by antenna height and wattage rating of TRX. Limitation of DOT for maximum radiation of 43 dBm was taken care and thus distance was limited to 3.25 KM (each side) at maximum in the topography of North East was the main constraint for small distance coverage. For radio propagation calculation Okumura-Hata model (GM 900MHz) of dense forest and inside the vehicle signal strength was considered. Other parameters were taken as standards followed for link budget calculation. In cases where backhaul on microwave is required, to get

91 | P a g e Line of sight (LOS) the tower location need to be shifted away from the target population. The minimum TRX power of 5 Watt is taken in such cases as against the ideal need of 2Watt TRX power, so as to cover the village even from a distance. The actual survey shall decide the TRX power and where ever possible TRX power radiation may be reduced below 5 watt so as to avoid unnecessary radio radiation. For all types of BTS, nos. of TRX was calculated keeping GPRS/EDGE provision of at least 128 Kbps. Below given are the BTS categories with respect to Antenna height and TRX watt rating. For deriving required TRX value for a particular site following are assumed.

1. GoS (Grade of Service) = 2%. 2. Call rate= 100 calls per hour in TCBH. 3. Erlang required= average of 25 milli Erlang per call. 4. Erlang table B used for channel calculation.

Table-5.2

S. No. BTS Type No. of TRX TRX Watt- Coverage in km Km for Define Rounded off Antenna- 30 meter 1 A 2 5 2 2 B 2 10 3.25 Note: The above categories are derived using Okumura-Hata radio propagation model for 900MHz GSM considering Dense forest, considering actual design criteria.

For BSC planning micro BSC’s ware considered for lesser power requirement and portable size. Such BSC’s have upto 50 TRX capacity and can be easily commissioned at remote sites like NE area. Cost of BSC along with its power requirement have been build up on BTS cost on per TRX basis. Similarly cost of OMC-R is also build upon BTS cost. There is no need for a separate NOC to be established.

Table-5.3

Numbers of BSC (50 TRX S. No. BTS Type Numbers of BTS capacity)

1 A 144 6 2 B 89 4

92 | P a g e Antenna requirement are to be decided after site finalization. Hence in all the above BTS types antenna may be Omni, Directional or Sectorial type depending on the tower location. Such design can be implemented by using splitters as required. Site survey along with feasibility study will decide the exact tower location which in return will decide the actual antenna height and required TRX radiation power. Issues like land acquisition, statutory permissions, views of inhabitants will also influence for site location feasibility study.

Back haul channel Back haul channel requirements have also been shown in analysis result. As TRX requirement is limited to 4 nos. at a site, hence dedicated E1 connectivity is not recommended for a single site. Moreover on highways E1 is available in plenty hence connectivity of BTS with nearby BSC will not be a problem. Also it is found that absence of any operator’s 2G services is not more than a 25Km in a single stretch. Hence only the last mile optical cable laying may be required. Thus in cost estimate we have taken cost of one splicing point and 1 KM of optical cable laying, so as to reach the nearest POP.

Power calculation

Power calculation was made based on Battery (with 3 days autonomy), Solar and Diesel Generator set. Use of Renewable Energy Technology (RET) Solar is taken as mandatory at all locations. In India the annual global solar radiation is about 5 KWh/ sqm per day with about 2300-3200 sun-shine hours per year. Solar radiations represent the earth’s most abundant energy source. The perennial source of solar energy provides unlimited supply, has no negative impact on the environment. The solar photovoltaic (PV) modules convert solar radiation from the sun into electrical energy in the form of direct current (DC). Converting solar energy into electricity is the answer to the mounting power problems in the rural areas especially for remote areas of North East region of India. Solar Photovoltaic Cells (SPV) system gives quality power out-put of 48 volt DC to charge directly the storage battery or provide direct power to telecom installations. BTS will be powered through battery and the charging of the battery will be made with a combination of both Solar and DG set, solar being the first preference. It is recommended to use Tubular GEL VRLA batteries as they provide better performance under the partial state of charge having slow rate of discharge performance ideally suits rural applications.

To make auto switching and load shearing cost of Charge Control Unit (CCU) with inbuilt SMPS Rectifier, Solar Junction Box, Remote Monitoring and cable cost (both AC/DC) were taken.

Below table shows power requirement based on BTS types:

93 | P a g e Table: 5.4 Power Requirements Based On BTS Types

Solar Battery- DG Set- S. TRX Power BTS power- BTS Type Single unit Single Unit No. ratting Wattage Single Unit

AH Watt KVA

1 A 5 150 417 1333 0.69 2 B 10 200 521 1667 0.87

Infrastructure

Under infrastructure category Tower are all considered to be Mast/ Pole tower of 30 meters. For hilly area of North East region erection of angular tower are time consuming and difficult job. In most of the cases the effective tower height will depend on the tower construction site altitude with respect to the target area to be covered. For costing purpose angular tower was consider in comparison to tubular tower as the same is more rigid and suitable for hilly areas. It’s recommended that tower design should be based on TEC GRs or as per design approved from an organization like Structural Engineering Research Centre (SERC)/ TEC/ IITs for structural fitness, safety, load bearing capacity, ability to withstand wind speed etc. along with antenna cost, cost of shelter along with fencing cost was consider for calculation of overall infrastructure cost.

Other cost like transportation, Commissioning and Installation cost was also included in the CAPEX estimation.

System configuration

The system uses centralized power plant, battery bank, SPV and diesel generator set. All these are centrally controlled by a Charge Control Unit (CCU) for optimal powering utilization of systems and charging of the battery bank. The CCU ensures smooth operation of the overall powering arrangement without any manual intervention. Its design will ensure optimal energy transfer from the SPV system using MPPT (Maximum Power Point Tracking) technique and automatic switching on/off of DG set on the basis of battery charge condition. For design purpose, Depth of Discharge (DoD) for the battery is taken as 80% of its capacity and the DG set is consider to trigger only when battery is discharged below 40% of its capacity. Such combination will make optimum uses of diesel and hence cost saving along with lower level of pollution is taken care off.

94 | P a g e A schematic diagram of system design:

SMP BTS S

GEN Sol CCU ar Solar Jun Photo BATTER ctio n Voltaic Y BANK Box (SPV) Module 5.5 BTS Cost Details Bellow given cost components per site. The components are divided in to five category.

1. BTS with antenna, feeder cable and BSC with OMC-R 2. Power  Battery (3 days Autonomy)  Solar (6 hrs. sunshine)  Diesel Generator 3. Tower (30 meter) 4. Backhaul (OFC) 5. Miscellaneous Items like Transportation, Site preparation, Installation etc

Table: 5.5 Cost Break Up

Description Cost in INR Cost in INR BTS conf. 2 of 5 watt 2 of 10 watt BTS Category A B

BTS with Antenna along with BSC & OMC-R 350,000 455,000

95 | P a g e Description Cost in INR Cost in INR BTS conf. 2 of 5 watt 2 of 10 watt BTS Category A B Power Battery with Racks, connector and other 330, 000 375,000 accessories Solar power system with civil works, 400,000 520,000 Racks, connector and other accessories Charge Control unit (CCU) 300,000 500,000 DG Set (For emergency charging) 100,000 150,000

Description Cost in INR Cost in INR BTS conf. 2 of 5 watt 2 of 10 watt

BTS Category A B Tower Mast/ Pole (SERC Approved Design) 650,000 900,000 erecting with all civil works Back haul Cost OFC per KM with one splicing joint for 1 800000 800000 Km

Description for miscellaneous items Cost in INR Cost in INR BTS conf. 2 of 5 watt 2 of 10 watt BTS Category A B

Cables and accessories like AC/DC Cable+ 100,000 200,000 Earthing+ HDPE PIPES Shelter cost 10'x10' feet, fiber block 200,000 250,000 roofing, Fencing etc Transportation 250,000 325,000 Commissioning & Installation 200,000 250,000

Any other items 100,000 100,000

96 | P a g e 5.6 Result analysis: Result of the highway 2G coverage study shows that a total of 233 nos. of BTS are required for a complete 2G coverage on the national Highways of North east region.

Table- 5.6 Highway Details

S.No. Latitude Longitude BTS type NAGALAND NH- 61 26.715574 94.631463 25.669597 94.105908 1 26.411369 94.607263 B 2 26.375695 94.574304 B 3 26.211471 94.476101 B 4 26.073418 94.536042 B 5 25.976754 94.509938 B 6 25.947586 94.488058 B 7 25.869713 94.437512 B 8 25.670663 94.229216 B 9 25.681652 94.205010 B 10 25.643576 94.164527 B NH-155 26.310165 94.509362

25.558211 94.310467 1 26.270678 94.520853 B 2 26.259220 94.556569 B 3 26.275764 94.589364 B 4 26.271344 94.635194 B 5 26.220381 94.620603 B 6 26.179597 94.814408 B 7 26.200142 94.870048 B 8 26.190651 94.899212 B 9 26.113394 94.875786 B 10 26.043559 94.887617 B 11 26.025348 94.866734 B 12 26.009861 94.843433 B 13 25.948819 94.784488 B 14 25.618491 94.504968 B 15 25.614844 94.481597 B

97 | P a g e S.No. Latitude Longitude BTS type

16 25.592371 94.429457 B 17 25.581049 94.339473 B NH-150 25.664771 94.193775 25.516722 94.298526 1 25.522228 94.324362 B NH-39 25.919229 93.730024 25.520530 94.132314 1 END POINT B NH-36 NA

MANIPUR NH-155 NA NH-39 25.516306 94.133488 24.251596 94.299266 1 NA NH-150 25.501242 94.290853 24.2387 93.026877 1 25.482399 94.345298 B 2 25.499395 94.391735 B 3 25.459375 94.485784 B 4 25.425879 94.513674 B 5 25.387496 94.534569 B 6 25.34467 94.534658 B 7 25.289749 94.482604 B 8 25.245168 94.453061 B 9 25.178340 94.409332 B 10 25.027647 94.315224 B 11 24.342952 93.49483 B 12 24.345112 93.430661 B 13 24.313206 93.357706 B 14 24.268679 93.230479 B 15 24.261946 93.158679 B 16 24.247073 93.133861 B 17 24.243165 93.07532 B 18 24.230953 93.039775 B NH-53 24.807815 93.11565 24.806911 93.933898 A 1 24.789444 93.191929 A A

98 | P a g e S.No. Latitude Longitude BTS type

2 24.816757 93.245782 B 3 24.795891 93.256981 B 4 24.720016 93.263082 B 5 24.764405 93.297788 B 6 24.765809 93.366949 B 7 24.756998 93.389096 B 8 24.788723 93.459741 B 9 24.849604 93.497806 B 10 24.825948 93.522193 B 11 24.813812 93.552753 B 12 24.786426 93.697418 B 13 24.787162 93.73375 B 14 24.790115 93.770396 A SIKKIM NH-31A 27.499303 88.534033 27.174299 88.530006 1 27.455633 88.527156 A ASSAM

NH-31, Full 31B,31C and Coverage 152 NH-52 26.344631 91.728645 27.840254 95.221156 1 27.566324 94.807196 A NH-52B 27.488535 94.91967 27.557486 95.200677 1 27.518482 94.984111 B 2 A 27.539217 95.093334 3 A NH-37 26.196037 90.562799 27.85666 95.765027 1 27.801066 95.665461 A NH-39 26.630534 93.727232 25.923767 93.731125 1 26.580338 93.809158 A NH-36 26.347361 92.684977 25.904133 93.680758 1 92.937044 26.13674 B

99 | P a g e S.No. Latitude Longitude BTS type

2 A 26.002664 93.318046 3 A 4 25.966028 93.497253 B 5 25.958112 93.583098 B 16 25.923226 93.626357 B NH-54 26.111991 92.865145 24.5216 92.76362 1 25.868389 93.053627 B 2 25.851397 93.086242 B 3 25.828223 93.088645 B 4 25.799171 93.132934 B 5 25.696109 93.128272 B 6 25.573052 93.09068 B 7 25.417237 93.128468 B 8 25.342986 93.134593 B 9 A 25.071314 92.892951 10 A 11 24.549958 92.774034 B NH 151,44,154,37A,38, 51,53,61,52A,62,15 Full 3 Coverage

ARUNACHAL PRADESH NH-52 27.870731 95.30964 27.639032 95.801003 1 A 28.20175 95.549143 2 A 3 A 28.180497 95.649912 4 A 5 A 28.131737 95.734946 6 A 7 27.99369 95.94423 B 8 27.909907 95.946049 B 9 27.772683 95.979286 B NH-153 27.356884 95.998439 27.247668 96.152907 1 27.317689 96.05384 B

100 | P a g e S.No. Latitude Longitude BTS type NH-37, 52A and 52B Full Coverage

TRIPURA NH-44 24.432164 92.248105 23.034874 91.721462 1 24.402517 92.240864 B 2 A 23.945081 91.957607 3 A 4 A 23.896513 91.765481 5 A NH-44A 23.996952 91.993907 23.828442 92.049031 1 23.896217 92.003289 B MEGHALAYA NH-51 25.897416 90.518933 25.204016 90.227755 NH-62 25.906588 90.775118 25.251987 90.632137 1 25.833805 90.77935 B 2 25.721243 90.822411 B 3 A 25.580916 90.72915 4 A 5 A 25.390483 90.680837 6 A 7 25.259075 90.642601 A NH-44 25.515039 91.26678 25.047189 92.441075 1 A 25.084508 92.418416 2 A NH-40 26.041368 91.867722 25.440649 92.196739 MIZORAM NH-44A 23.934599 92.367956 23.754364 92.728925 1 23.915062 92.380443 B 2 23.892135 92.576601 B NH-54 24.519931 92.763053 22.313239 93.026366

101 | P a g e S.No. Latitude Longitude BTS type

1 22.894255 92.862649 B 2 A 22.396852 92.95899 3 A 4 22.397127 93.013451 B NH-54A 22.907586 92.470421 22.85134 92.791104 NH-150 24.215581 92.54903 24.047185 92.670495 1 24.12733 92.613086 B NH-154 24.232578 93.018491 23.734254 92.847331 1 24.22776 92.990954 B 2 24.151563 92.941877 B 3 23.936805 92.92737 B NH-54B 22.466569 92.955412 22.487111 92.984337 1 22.470932 92.96668 A 2 22.490286 92.952482 A Note: For NH no. 229 of 1090 Km in Arunachal Pradesh 50% is uncovered and for the same 109 BTS of type A is considered.

The above table shows the National highways running in states of North East and the type of BTSs required for seamless 2G coverage on the highways with the latitude & longitude details.

All highways are covered with BTS of two categories: A & B. The BTS details with its antenna height, number of TRX and sector requirements is given in a table above. The cost reference taken and break down item wise is shown below. As power supply is difficult to have at the sites hence total power requirement is also shown in the table. Battery autonomy is taken for 3 days irrespective of BTS type. Capacity of battery was calculated made considering solar and diesel generator set to be as backup for battery charging where solar charging will be given priority over DG set. On an average sunshine was considered to be for 6 hours a day and the Depth of Discharge (DoD) for the battery is taken as 80%. Battery when discharge below 40% of its capacity will trigger the DG set provided that there is no solar charging available at that moment. Such circuit design is possible through DCPDB board and automatic change over switch.

Cost of sites with respect to BTS type and total number of BTS types is given below.

102 | P a g e Table- 5.7

Battery- Solar DG Set- Single unit power- Single Single Unit Unit Cost of Unit Site with BTS BSC Roundedoff S. No. S. Cost of respect to - Antenna BTS BTS Type NoTRX of Site in BTS Type BTS Wattage BTS Lakh in Rs Totalofnumbers Totalofnumbers km. for 30for meterkm.

WATT AH Watt KVA INR crores 1 A 5 2 1+1 150 144 6 417 1333 0.69 37.80 54.43 2 B 10 3.25 1+1 200 89 4 521 1667 0.87 48.25 42.94 Total Cost Estimate (In Rs. Crore) 97.37

Total cost comes out to be INR 97.37 Crore for 233 no. of sites.

103 | P a g e 5.6 Key Observation: It is observed that due to non availability of power source in remote areas of North East highways the cost per site increases many folds. It may be observed that the cost of BTS is only some 10% of site cost. The maximum of the cost is contributed by power system having both solar and DG sets. Hence BTS power rating would be a key factor on the overall budget estimation. It is suggested to go for low power micro BTS instead of conventional BTS though it cost little higher. This in return will save more on the power back up part and thus will be a better feasible solution for sites with very low return on investment (ROI).

5.7 Recommendation In addition to the CAPEX above, there is a huge recurring investment required to maintain this infra structure in the form of Fiber and equipment maintenance. As the North eastern Region has tough terrain and currently the tele-density is low, operators do not see a lucrative business model or rate of return in this part of the country because of the gap in huge investment of capital and operational expenses vis-à-vis the revenue earned. Therefore there is a need to cover operating costs also; this will encourage operators to provide keep providing services in NER.

The CAPEX as estimated above for the BTS deployment on uncovered highway may be funded by USOF. This will encourage operators to establish infrastructure. As OPEX is also very high in NER, the same can be factored by taking the net revenue (i.e. Revenue – OPEX) while calculating the subsidy. On an average OPEX per year is taken as 20% of capex cost. Such cost includes AMC costs, manpower, drive test and optimization, regular site maintenance, diesel etc cost. It is to mention in earlier schemes of USOF, passive sharing of towers is mandated. However, as per current guidelines active sharing of RAN is also allowed and the main advantage of this technology is the reduction in CAPEX and OPEX as both active and passive component is shared by operators. The subsidy calculation to fund the gap may consider this technology and mandate the active sharing of RAN.

104 | P a g e 6. Annexure

Annexure I: Graphical Representation of Rings on Google Maps

Annexure II: Data of Existing OFC of Various Operators

Annexure III: Details of Fiber Km of TCIL & TRAI

105 | P a g e Annexure III: Details of Fiber Km of TCIL & TRAI

S.No. State TCIL OFC km. TRAI OFC km. CAPEX (Rs cr.) 1 Assam 158 (u/g) 902 km 70 (aerial) 25.09 1 Meghalaya 123 (u/g) 296 12.69 2 Tripura 76 (u/g) 45 10.98 3 Mizoram 382 (aerial) 743 (aerial) 265 (u/g) 460 (u/g)

100 (damaged) 65.26 4 Manipur 171 (u/g) 201 (u/g)

70 (microwave) 16.21 5 Nagaland 124 km(u/g) 329 (km) 30 km. 43km(microwave) (damaged) 17.57 6 Arunachal 845 km. (u/g) 1724 km(u/g) Pradesh 639 km(aerial) Satellite on 6 links 136.17 7 Sikkim 125 km 115 km 11.55 Total 295.52

106 | P a g e