BSNL for massive expansion in mobile services

New Delhi, Aug 24: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has floated a tender for procurement of 63.5 million mobile telephone lines with the aim of achieving the largest ever expansion, IT and Communication Minister Dayanidhi Maran said today.

''The capacity expansion of BSNL alone in the next two to three years will be equivalent to the capacity expansion of all the private players put together,'' Mr Maran said in the Rajya Sabha.

Answering a supplementary, he said with the implementation of the capacity expansion, not only the coverage of mobile telephony would increase but the quality of service would also improve.

Members belonging to different parties, including the treasury benches, complained about the poor quality of mobile phone services by the MTNL and BSNL. Senior CPM member Sitaram Yechuri went to the extent of asking the minister whether the government companies were not installing communication towers so that the private operators could flourish.

UNI