Public sector telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) targets to cover the complete geography of Uttar Pradesh (East) circle with mobile services by the end of this fiscal.At present, BSNL has around 3,800 Base Transceiver Station (BTS) or cell sites in the circle and the company plans to ramp them up by 1,700 by March 2010.
“Our estimate shows that a total of 5,500 BTS would cover whole of UP (E) circle, comprising even the remotest of villages. Then there would be no congestion or signal problem,” Circle chief general manager Om Vir Singh said addressing the media on Wednesday.
On the occasion to mark the 9th Foundation Day of BSNL, he also launched ‘BSNL Live’, a value added service in the form of a portal for the 3G services.
“BSNL is focusing on expanding mobile and broadband services all over the country and providing value addition to fixed landline connections, which are on decline mode,” he added.
Broadband service had been made available to all the 2,200 exchanges of BSNL covering 50 districts in UP(E), which is the largest BSNL telecom circle in the country.
BSNL has launched 3G services in all the 34 important cities of UP (E) and 23 more would be covered by fiscal end.
For the Wi-Max service, equipment for 30 BTS has been received and these would be commissioned this year.
“Our IPTV is also getting popular and there are almost 700 subscribers in the circle with about 500 in Lucknow alone,” Singh informed.
The company had also submitted a proposal to connect all the 354 degree colleges with broadband under Close User Group (CUG) model.“We are also vying for the project to connect all villages with broadband and mobile services,” he added.
