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Bangalore , Dec.15

BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) said today that it is ready to offer broadband services for around Rs 1,000 on a monthly basis.

BSNL also announced that it expects to post double the profit during the current year while an exercise to identify excess staff is currently underway before the voluntary retirement scheme is announced.

"BSNL is keen that broadband services should be available at an affordable price," its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Prithpal Singh, told newspersons today.

He was speaking on the occasion of the signing of an MoU with the Karnataka Government for wide area network for connecting all government offices across the State.

Earlier, Mr Singh launched broadband services in Bangalore on an experimental basis to a few customers. "Further expansion of the services nationally would be based on the feedback received from the users and the demand for such services," Mr Singh said. Around 50 users are being given this service for a period of two months, Mr Singh said.

He said video conferencing services too should be available by March next year. He said through a broadband service, telephone, high-speed Internet service, video-on-demand, video streaming, video conferencing, point to point 64 Kbps circuits and Ethernet private line service will be available for the users. The equipment for providing this service has been designed by the Bangalore-based Measurements and Control India Pvt Ltd. A call centre has been opened to cater to the users of this service in Bangalore.

Mr Singh said once the IUC (interconnect user charges) regime comes into force, BSNL plans to revise its tariff. The implementation of the regime has been deferred to next year.

Mr Singh said BSNL expects to double the profit during the current year though the profits during the previous year had decreased 76 per cent to Rs 1,444 crore. He said the profits had dipped last year because of payment of arrears. He said BSNL is formulating a voluntary retirement scheme package to trim its workforce.

Mr Singh said the capacity of WLL equipment in Bangalore has been increased to 25,000 lines from 5,000 lines, of which 75 per cent will be WLL mobile handsets. He said the Rs 50 charge for CLIP service has also been wavied off. The base station has been increased to 22 from four thereby covering most parts of Bangalore urban.

The pact with BSNL "will lead to better connectivity and e-governance in the State," the Additional Chief Secretary for Karnataka, Mr K.K. Mishra, said.

He said the Government plans to invest around Rs 140 crore over a period of eight years for this purpose and rope in private players on a BOT basis.

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BSNL signs telecom networking pact with Karnataka Govt

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