New Delhi, Oct. 26 -- India is preparing to open its BharatNet optical fibre network to private internet service providers, two officials aware of the plans said, as sluggish last-mile progress prompts a rethink of its ambitious plan to bring broadband to the hinterland. A new portal to sign up ISPs is in the works, while guidelines for their BharatNet usage are being prepared.

While India successfully built BharatNet's fiber backbone, the Rs.1.39-trillion project has struggled to actually connect the households. Out of the targeted 15 million homes, only 1.64 million were connected till September end, a telecom department dashboard showed. Active connections were even less: just 947,000 in April, according to latest available data. The ...