Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Friday, Apr 02, 2004
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Friday, Apr 02, 2004 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications BSNL plans CellOne network expansion on a massive scale in AP Our Bureau
Hyderabad , April 1 THE State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., has drawn up aggressive plans for CellOne mobile services for fiscal 2004-2005 and has tendered for equipment to augment about 1.2 million additional mobile connections for Andhra Pradesh Circle, thereby taking the capacity to nearly two million lines in the State. The Chief General manager of BSNL, AP-Telecom, Mr Sanjaya Kumar said the circle currently has about 5,40,000 CellOne subscribers. Of this equipment for 1,32,000 lines is expected to be commissioned by May-June 2004. Consequently, another 63 new towns and cities will be covered in the first phase. Alongside this, the Circle has also placed orders for 80,000 new lines and the process of its deployment has begun. This telecom circle expects to commission additional facility by July-August 2004 aimed at mainly expanding the service in existing cities and also covering 11 new ones. Further, in one of the major orders from the circle, which will help the operator ramp up operations significantly, AP Telecom circle has drawn up plans to provide 9.63 lakh additional lines during the last quarter of 2004-2005. The tenders for such a large expansion of network and systems and related equipment are under finalisation, he told newspersons yesterday. While strengthening the CellOne network, the telecom circle is set to add 75,000 CDMA-based WLL (wireless in local loop) lines with 75 base stations and this project is expected to be completed by October 2004. The BSNL expansion of wireless coverage will reach over 1,100 villages. Simultaneously, BSNL has received consent for 1,07,000 lines of rural WLL equipment for which tenders are being processed now. Consequently, 2,100 villages would be covered with WLL network. Laying special thrust on the State rural coverage, AP Telecom circle has projected deployment of 4.39 lakh WLL phones in rural areas and 1.76 lakh in urban areas. With emphasis on the growth of the landlines in the State, BSNL has drawn up plans to connect 2,600 small exchanges to main exchanges that would help improve the signal reliability and also ensure better maintenance of the network. This expansion would be complimented by a 900 kilometre of optical fibre cable line to provide support for long distance and access of network. The Principal General Manager of BSNL-Hyderabad, Mr C. Govardhan, said during the year 2003-2004, the circle added about 3,89,146 new landlines and of this about 1,00,325 were in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. Significantly, the circle now has a waitlist of about 38,287 for landline connections.
More Stories on : Telecommunications | Andhra Pradesh
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