BSNL rolls out WiMAX-based Net services

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has rolled out WiMAX-based internet services in 10 cities on a trial basis.

The PSU is slated to extend this project to other cities after evaluating the results of this pilot project. The equipment for the trail are being supplied by Motorola.

WiMAX (short for Worldwide Interoperability of Microwave Access) is a standards-based wireless technology that provides high-throughput broadband connections over long distances, with typical cell sizes of two to ten kilometers.

"The ten cities are Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Pune, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Hissar, Pinjore, Rohtam and Panipat. The four WiMAX stations allotted to Haryana circles will be used exclusively for rural areas," BSNL executives told Business Standard.

According to BSNL executives, during the trial run, the company will use WiMAx for six specific applications. The first application that is being tested is that, by using WiMAX, the use of tier 1 and tier 2 switch and optical access network can be avoided.

We would also be providing Internet connectivity to customers speed of up to 10 mbps using this facility, BSNL executives said.

In cities where Wi-Fi hotspots are present, BSNL is working out ways to use this service to provide a higher bandwidth to Wi-Fi hotspots compared with conventional backhauling using ADSL.

The PSU is also experimenting with providing broadband services to residential customers through WiMAX, rather than conventional copper. For this, ethernet cabling is being done in some apartment buildings.

These cables would terminate on a LAN switch which can be connected to the WiMAX CPE and each user would be given a separate user name and password to individual billing, company executives said.

For those who do not want ethernet cabling, BSNL is trying to set up Wi-Fi access points in locations and connect them to the WiMAX CPE, which in turn is connected to the Internet backbone.

Trials also include providing MPLS-VPN services on this platform, company executives added.