Telangana To Use Google X Technology To Connect Villages

Hyderabad: The Telangana government is keen to use Free Space Optical Communications (FSOC) technology of Google X to provide internet access to people in parts of the state, officials said yesterday.

The state government officials discussed the proposal with Tom Moore, Vice President, Google X on the sidelines of the World Congress on Information Technology (WCIT) 2018, which concluded in Hyderabad on Wednesday.

“We had very useful preliminary discussions. He is willing to bring that technology to India as a test case,” Principal Secretary, Information Technology, Jayesh Ranjan told the reporters.

The state government is interested in using the technology for connectivity in the areas where it could not lay optic fiber cables under T-Fiber project, aimed at providing high speed connectivity to all the households.

The optical fiber cables are being laid along with the water pipelines under Mission Bhagiratha, the government program aimed at providing drinking water to every house.

“Since we have missed out on some bits, where the water pipelines were already laid, the optical technology of Google X can be used as this does not require a cable. This is something revolutionary in area of connectivity and is easy to deploy,” said Ranjan. “We have asked him to showcase how this technology works in bits where we missed out on fiber. His team will work on the proposal and show. If that materializes we will be first user of this technology in India,” he added.