The Hindu Business Line : BSNL to launch broadband services

THE State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, (BSNL), is in the process of developing Phase II of the National Information Backbone (NIB) and expects to roll out its broadband services to both corporate and home segments in the third quarter this year.

The Chief General Manager of BSNL, Mr Sanjaya Kumar, said that the second phase was expected to cover Hyderabad, Vijayawada, Visakhapatnam, Rajahmundry and Cuddapah and would be linked to the national network.

This would enable wide range of customer requirements including security, quality of service, higher bandwidth on demand, secure VPN (virtual private network), high speed Internet service, video on demand and other value added and data services.

Addressing a press conference here , Mr Kumar said that apart from providing broadband on demand by deploying DSL (digital subscriber loop) technology, the corporation was set to upgrade its Internet nodes at all district headquarters. Simultaneously efforts are on for the installation of the IN (intelligent network) platform which is under validation.

The broadband network would complement the existing ISDN network wherein users will have access through the dial-up connectivity. BSNL plans to deploy about 1000 lines to strengthen the existing Internet service wherein about 450 centres are being expanded.

"We are in the process of commissioning a call centre for basic telephony services. This is expected to cover the entire State network, Mr Kumar said.