What’s Inside the World’s Largest Rural Broadband Network?

India has built one of the world’s largest rural broadband networks. Villages that were once digitally isolated now participate in online payments, governance platforms and digital commerce. Yet one larger national objective remained unaddressed. The networks that connected millions of Indians were not designed and built in India.

For years, critical routing and IP/MPLS technologies that determine how data traffic moves, recovers and scales were developed outside the country. India deployed advanced systems widely and effectively, but the underlying control layer of network design, innovation, and long-term evolution relied on external vendors.

But with BharatNet Phase 3, India is now building its own IP/MPLS layer. It is the core routing technology that directs how data travels across large networks and decides which path traffic takes, how quickly it moves, and how the system responds if a link fails.

This shift is now visible in deployment. In an industry first, an Indian company has designed, built, and deployed a telecom-grade IP/MPLS routing platform operating directly across live public broadband networks that span more than 250,000 gram panchayats. HFCL’s IP/MPLS routers are operating across diverse terrains, from hilly regions and forest belts to remote island territories. Even in environments with unstable power and limited physical access, they continue to deliver the same performance standards expected from established global vendors from day one.

In the world’s largest rural broadband rollout connecting 6,50,000 villages, HFCL supports 60 percent of network routing.

Over the past decade, large national broadband programmes have reshaped connectivity strategies across major economies. Australia’s National Broadband Network was designed to connect more than 10 million homes and businesses. The United States has committed over 42 billion dollars under the Broadband Equity, Access and Deployment programme to expand rural and underserved access. China’s rural broadband expansion has brought high-speed connectivity to hundreds of millions of residents across provincial regions.

However, India’s BharatNet is uniquely structured around linking rural administrative units under a single nationally coordinated fibre backbone, creating a common digital foundation for payments, services and economic activity across rural India, at a scale and coordination rarely seen globally.

BharatNet creates a unified digital foundation for rural India at an unprecedented scale. Under this project, around 6 lakh kilometres of fibre is being deployed across the country, enough to circle the Earth more than fifteen times. At this scale, the underlying network architecture becomes critical to keep hundreds of thousands of villages reliably connected.

Earlier phases of rural broadband rollout were optimised for speed. Linear middle mile architectures helped extend reach quickly, but they carried structural risk. A single fibre cut could isolate multiple downstream villages at once. Traffic could not be prioritised, leaving essential services exposed during congestion. Recovery depended largely on physical intervention rather than network intelligence.

As rural broadband usage deepened and services such as payments, welfare platforms, agriculture systems, and digital marketplaces became part of everyday life, the limitations of earlier network designs stopped being theoretical and began to show up in real situations. What was once a question of connectivity started becoming a question of reliability, timing, and outcomes.

In Western Uttar Pradesh, Savita Devi (name changed) stands in a small Common Service Centre with a folder of documents pressed tightly to her side. Unseasonal rains have already damaged her crop, and the only way to recover part of the loss is to file a crop insurance claim within a fixed deadline.

The process must be completed online, with geo-tagged photos, land records, and verification details, all submitted correctly for the claim to be accepted. The operator begins carefully, uploading images of the damaged field, entering details, and cross-checking each field before moving forward. When he finally clicks submit, the progress bar moves halfway and then stops. They wait, assuming it will go through, but the connection drops without warning.

They begin again from the start. Files are uploaded once more, details re-entered, and time continues to pass as others in the queue grow restless. Each attempt takes several minutes, and each failure brings them closer to the deadline. On the final attempt, the system loads, but the submission window has already closed. Savita does not argue or protest. She quietly gathers her documents and walks out. The crop is already lost, but now the financial support meant to protect her is gone as well. In that moment, the network does not just delay a process, it determines the outcome.

This is not an isolated experience. Across rural India, as more essential services move online, the gap between access and reliability becomes visible in everyday life.

In a weaving cluster in Punjab, Arjun Kumar (name changed) has begun using a government-supported digital platform to connect his handloom products to buyers beyond his local market. For the first time, demand is not limited by geography. One afternoon, he receives an order request from a buyer in another city and attempts to confirm availability and timelines. However, the platform responds slowly, updates do not reflect in real time, and messages fail to go through consistently.

As minutes turn into hours, the buyer moves on to another seller who responds faster. What could have been a step forward in scaling his business beyond the local market turns into a missed opportunity. For Arjun, the constraint is no longer skill or demand, but the reliability of the network that connects him to that demand.

These situations are different on the surface, but they point to the same underlying issue. When networks are not designed to handle scale, variability, and real-time demand, the impact is not technical; it is economic and social.

This is where IP/MPLS moves from an architectural choice to the foundation of inclusive technology for everyone.

Reliable connectivity does more than move data. It underpins economic activity. It supports everyday transactions, sustains small businesses, and ensures that services reach people without interruption. Routing intelligence determines whether these systems remain dependable as usage grows. When the network holds steady under load, digital access turns into real participation and confidence in the system deepens.

Reliable networks convert digital access into real economic participation. HFCL routers now operate as part of the underlying digital infrastructure. They support today’s broadband services and form a stable base for future expansion. More importantly, this reflects a shift in domestic capability. India is not only extending networks anymore. It is beginning to own the intelligence that runs them at scale.

For a deeper look at HFCL’s IP MPLS deployment across one of India’s largest telecom networks, explore here.

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