BSNL to invest Rs 22,881 crore in FY07-08

New Delhi, Sep 7: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today said it will invest Rs 22,881 crore in the current fiscal for expanding its telephone network in the country.

''We will infuse Rs 22,881 crore for expanding fixed, mobile, broadband and internet services in FY08,'' company's newly appointed Chairman and Managing Director (CMD) Kuldeep Goyal told reporters here.

The company will invest Rs 3,069 crore for expansion of fixed and WLL phones, Rs 7,417 crore for mobile phones, Rs 3,163 crore for Broadband and Internet and Rs 9,230 crore for other services, Mr Goyal added.

As on August 1 this year, BSNL has 3.59 crore connection of fixed and WLL, which is about 82 per cent of the market share.

The company had lost five lakh connections in this segment last fiscal and plans to add 16 lakh connection in 2007-08.

In mobile (GSM&WLL) segment, the total connection were 2.93 crore as on August 1 which accounted for 15.50 per cent of the market share.

The company targets to add 88.5 lakh connections in the fiscal as compared to addition of one crore connection during last fiscal in this segment.

BSNL had 10.46 lakh broadband connections which is around 42 per cent of the market share on August 1. It plans to add 20 lakh broadband connections this fiscal as compared to addition of three lakh connections in the last fiscal.

It had 45 per cent of the market share in Internet connections at 32 connections on August 1. The company aims to add nine lakh lines this fiscal as compared to addition of eight lakh connections in last fiscal.

UNI