DoT to upgrade fibre cable quality standards for telcos and ISPs

IN A BID to address challenges with regard to weak internet connectivity due to deployment of poor quality optical fibre cable (OFC), the department of telecommunications (DoT) is soon expected to come up with new quality standards for telcos and internet service providers (ISPs) regarding the use of OFCs.

- JATIN GROVER

The new guidelines once notified might require telcos and ISPs to minimise the use of legacy variant of OFCs and switch to newer generation of cables, which provide better network experience and last longer for decades, according to people aware of the matter.

Discussions are also going on to bring in a certification kind of regime wherein the telcos and ISPs will have to meet certain additional testing requirements before laying the optical fibre cables under the upcoming mandatory testing & certification of telecommunication equipment (MTCTE) regime, sources said. The Engineering Telecommunication Centre (TEC) under DoT is working on the new set of guidelines and standards.

Deployment of right quality of fibre is crucial at a time when telcos are deploying 5G network across the country.Arobust fibre network infrastructure provides the backhaul capacity which is necessary to meet performance goals of 5G such as higher speeds and low latency. Similarly, with additional guidelines on quality of OFC, the government also wants to ensure the quality of connectivity under its BharatNet project.