BSNL to increase broadband usage, 10 million users by 2010

New Delhi, Nov 3: The country's largest telecom provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today said it would increase its broadband subscribers to 10 million in the next couple of years besides making inroads into rural areas.

''We have placed orders for this year and our roll-out process is also going robust. We also plan to reach about 20,000 villages and many smaller cities to expand our broadband connectivity base,'' BSNL CMD Anil Kumar Sinha said.

Mr Sinha said with increasing popularity of e-governance the broadband connectivity in the country will increase.

''We anticipate a great future of broadband in India'', Mr Sinha said.

BSNL has invested Rs 1,500 crore to expand its broadband service in 1,000 more cities in the next two years. Besides, BSNL has also tied up with HCL Infosystems Ltd to launch the BSNL HCL PC for DataOne broadband customers in the country.

The broadband service has already been launched in Bangalore, Chennai, Hyderabad and Kolkata. Soon, it will be extended to more than 200 cities, Mr Sinha said.

BSNL is in the process of commissioning of a world class, multi-gigabit, multi-protocol, convergent IP infrastructure through National Internet Backbone II (NIB-II), that will provide convergent services through the same backbone and broadband access network.

The broadband service will be available on DSL technology (on the same copper cable that is used for connecting telephone), on a countrywide basis.

The BSNL broadband service, initially includes high speed internet (256 kbps and more) and simultaneous phone service on the same telephone line. Other services such as VPN, Multicasting, Video Conferencing, Video-on-Demand, Broadcast application etc will be introduced.

UNI