The 3G services being offered by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) in 23 towns and cities of Punjab and Chandigarh have found many takers. Thirteen months after its commercial launch in February last year, BSNL has been able to get 190,000 subscribers (up to March 31, 2010) for 3G services in Punjab and Chandigarh. In order to strengthen its network, it is planning to add 400 new sites for 3G services across the state.
Earlier, it had set a target of 100,000 3G subscribers in Punjab circle which comprises Punjab and Chandigarh, by March 2010. Initially, BSNL launched its 3G services in Jalandhar in February 2009 followed by other district headquarters of Punjab in phases and Chandigarh even as the private operators are still waiting to get spectrum through the auction process.
Punjab Telecom Circle CGM P K Paliwal said, “We got very good response from the customers for 3G services. Our services were made available to all the 23 towns of Punjab and Chandigarh in December 2009. Our subscriber base increased exponentially in the last few months and touched 186,000 up to March 31, 2010.”
Experts believe that the subscriber base increased significantly in the last few months as the 3G handset prices went down in the period and they expect the acceptance among consumers will further increase once the services are available across the state (Punjab) and handset costs go further down. Further, they maintained the entry of private operators would also fuel the subscriber growth.
Worth noting that BSNL has 3.60 million subscribers as on March 2010 in the Punjab circle. With the launch of this 3G service, BSNL mobile subscribers will be able to get wireless data transfer speed of 2 mbps, telecast of television channels, high resolution picture and video downloading and video conferencing. Subscribers can also see movies on demand on their mobile phones.
Paliwal further said the third generation mobile service would offer a download speed 20 times faster than the existing 2G service and would also help attract new customers as at present only BSNL was offering the services in the region. He said the 3G project would offer an array of services such as live mobile TV, high-speed mobile broadband, video calling, broadband connectivity, faster video downloads, full-track music downloads and video conferencing.
