The Hindu Business Line : BSNL plans big broadband push — Targets 198 cities, 1 million users by 2005

The state-owned company, which plans to get one million broadband subscribers by 2005, is in talks with at least four private sector companies including Times Internet and Xalted Networks for franchising sections of the project.

An agreement has already been entered into with the Bangalore-based Ispatial for deploying broadband in seven cities and Atlas Interactive in four cities. The franchisees have been set a target of 40 lakh subscribers by next year.

BSNL is rolling out its broadband network on its own across 198 cities with an aim to garner 0.6 million subscribers by next year. Through a project called National Internet Backbone Phase-II, BSNL is deploying multi-gigabit, multi-protocol IP infrastructure to provide voice, data and video through the same backbone.

The NIB will cover most of the States. The largest deployment will be in Maharashtra covering seven cities. In Tamil Nadu the network will touch the cities of Chennai, Coimbatore, Madurai, Thirussur and Pondicherry.

In Kerala, the broadband will be initially rolled out in Ernakulam, Kozhikode, Palghat, Thrissur and Thiruvananthapuram. In Karnataka, BSNL plans to cover Bangalore, Belgaum, Hubli, Mangalore and Mysore. Cities in the North-East and Jharkhand is also on BSNL's broadband map.

BSNL will be deploying three different technologies for rolling out broadband services. The public sector company is using the Multiprotocol Label Switching (MPLS), which will be commissioned across 71 cities by November.

BSNL is also using the popular Asynchronous Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) on its existing copper lines for services such as high-speed Internet and video on demand services. BSNL is also using the digital loop carrier (DLC) system for which it has tied up with ITI Ltd.

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