BSNL to provide 1.5 lakh connections in AP dist

Vijayawada, Oct 7: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will provide about 1.5 lakh connections in four categories in Krishna district this fiscal.

Addressing a press conference here today, District General Manager M John Chrisotom said out of the total connections, one lakh would be cellular and the remaining would be land line, mobile and WLL connections.

He said there would be 143 rural broadband exchanges in rural areas in the district and of which 37 have already been commissioned, while 80 were in advanced stage and the remaining would be completed by December this year.

The estimated cost of the project was Rs 2.99 crore, he added.

On the WLL services, Mr Chrisotom said there were 43 WLL towers in the Krishna district and nine were planned in this fiscal.

He said prepaid WLL services had been launched and 1,500 line exchanges, costing Rs 1.88 crore, were being commissioned at Gollapudi and works related to two more exchanges were in progress at P and T Colony, Patamata, with 3,000 lines capacity and another at Lotus land mark with 1,000 lines capacity.

On the cellular services, he said the second MSC, with six lakh capacity and costing Rs 23 crore, was commissioned and added that at present, in the district, 120 cell towers were working and 125 more cell towers were planned to be set up with a cost of Rs 25 crore this fiscal.

Mr Chrisotom said the Wi-Max-Wireless Broadband connectivity was on the cards of the BSNL products which was likely to come into operation and would enable broadband connectivity on wireless. The Wi-Max was planned for four stations in rural areas and six locations in Vijayawada with a cost of Rs 6 crore, he added. He said as festive offer, all customers who book broadband connection this month, would be given a rental rebate of 20 per cent for a period of six months.

A trial period of 15 days was offered for customers to experience the BSNL broadband he said and added a total plan outlay of RS 147 crore was approved for Vijayawada telecom this year.

UNI