VPTs to reach all villages in MP

Bhopal, July 13 (UNI) Madhya Pradesh is set to achieve the target of making 'Village Public Telephone (VPT)' available in all its 52,000 villages by September.

''We are very close to achieving the target. At present, VPT service is not available in only 300-400 villages,'' Madhya Pradesh Telecom Circle Chief General Manager R K P Hinduja told UNI here.

Madhya Pradesh would probably become the first state to have VPTs in all villages.

He said consumers would experience variety in its services with the launch of multi-play scheme next year.

Facilities like telephone, broadband internet access, films and various television channels would be available to these consumers due to this facility.

The service was being experimented in Pune at present.

Besides focussing on quality, the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) was giving full importance to marketing.

Mr Hinduja said the BSNL would be in a position to provide five lakh connections with regular expansion of its network.

At present, there are 1,100 towers in the state for providing mobile services but the number would double by next year. The BSNL has nine lakh mobile consumers besides 15 lakh landline and WLL consumers.

The BSNL has set a target to increase the number of broadband connections from 35,000 to one lakh.

He pointed out that BSNL had a special target to take telecom services to rural areas and making profit was not its sole objective.

Admitting that the BSNL was facing stiff competition from private players, he said this had inspired the BSNL to improve its services, as the company aimed at developing itself into most reliable brand.

UNI