The AP-Transco is contemplating leasing up to 12 spare fibres of Optical Ground Wire (OPGW) running on its transmission network, for telecom businesses to provide and improve last-mile communication in remote areas, according to an official release.
This project will not only help the AP-Transco in earning income to shore up its revenues thereby strengthening the system financially, but also benefit the people in rural areas by filling the gaps in telecom infrastructure.
In a review meeting with AP-Transco officials on Friday, Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) K. Vijayanand said the State power utility was planning to take the major step of leasing out optical fibre cable lines to reputed telecom operators and telecom infrastructure providers. After the sale of surplus power to other States during non-peak hours, the commercial utilisation of OPGW would be another major development.
The AP-Transco would lease out 12 fibres of OPGW network measuring 2,765 km to licensed commercial telecom operators at a rate of ₹2,250 per fibre/km/annum as per the rates of Bharat Broadband Network Limited and expressions of interest would be called for it soon, the CMD added.
Joint Managing Director Dinesh Paruchuri said AP-Transco had an extensive optical fibre network spread over 4,350 km on the existing 400 KV, 200 KV and 132 KV Extra High Tension (EHT) transmission lines.
The present EHT transmission line network in AP-Transco was around 22,000 circuit kilometres. For its primary captive communication services, AP-Transco was using the OPGW for State Load Dispatch Centre data, Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition and tele-protection.