Targeting the high end customers in Orissa, the public sector telecom company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) today launched the third generation mobile communication ‘3G’ services in the state.
The services were launched in Bhubaneswar and Puri today and it will be expanded to four more towns namely Kuurda, Jatnai, Cuttack and Jharsuguda in April this year.
The company has chalked out plans to roll out the 3G services in 48 locations in the state by July 2009.This includes 30 district headquarters and 18 other towns having industrial and tourist importance. It has made Rs 75 crore additional investment for rolling out this service in the state.
“We are launching the next generation communications system 3G to meet the multi-media requirement of the high end customers and intend to roll out this service in 48 locations of the state by July 2009”, A N Rai, Chief General Manager (CGM), Orissa Telecom Circle told the media.
Launching the much awaited service in the state, Rai said, it will help provide services like video call, mobile broadband, mobile TV and video streaming. The facilities like m-banking, m-commerce are proposed to be introduced later.
Customers in both the pre-paid and the post-paid segment can avail this facility. BSNL has tied up with Ericson for supply of equipments for the service. “We have not set high target for 3G services but hope to get high-end customers”, Rai added.
The Orissa region of the company, which has a turnover of about Rs 700 crore, has already invested Rs 500 crore in the state during the current fiscal. It is gearing up to start the ‘multi-play services’. Initially, this service will be rolled out in the wired lines. As a measure in that direction, it has installed the required equipments in about 400 rural exchanges. While the trial is going on at the moment, the service will be started soon.
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Balaram Pal, general manager (mobiles) said, the company has introduced a trial pack for 3G data plans. While the trial pack of 50MB is priced at Rs 60 having a validity of 15 days, the 100MB trial pack having the same validity has been priced at Rs 120. The customer will have to get a new SIM and 3G enabled handset for availing the service. For providing mobile TV services, BSNL has signed with APALYA and more such agreements will be signed in the near future.
U S Panda, general manager (operations) said, the company is expecting one lakh new fixed-line phone sets in about 15 days time. Once the stock arrives, the company will provide the phone having caller ID facility. The corporate customers will be provided with such phones in the first phase which will be provided to other customer at a later phase. BSNL has a subscriber base of about 22 lakhs in the state. This includes 14 lakh mobile subscribers and about 8 lakh landline subscribers.