• Investment World
• eWorld
• Catalyst
• Mentor
• Life
• Canvas
• Praxis
• Urban Pulse
• Brand Quest

Stocks

• Quotes
• SE Diary
• Scoreboard
• Open-End Mutual Fund

Cross Currency

• Rates
  
  

Shipping

• Ports
  
  

Archives

• Yesterday
• Datewise
• Resources

Group Sites

• The Hindu
• Business Line
• Sportstar
• Frontline
• The Hindu eBooks
• The Hindu Images

Our Bureau

Hyderabad , Nov. 30

THE State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has announced plans for a major expansion that will see the operator adding about 345 new towns into the network and a range of new value-added services, including broadband, that will involve an investment of about Rs 250 crore.

Addressing a press conference here, the Chief General Manager of Andhra Pradesh Telecom circle, BSNL, Mr Sanjaya Kumar, said the circle plans to launch broadband services next month and has invited people to register for the services.

Announcing the launch of a host of innovative offerings, including a Rs 140 a month post-paid mobile phone plan for CellOne services, Mr Kumar said the subscriber base for mobile phones now estimated at about 8,00,000 in the State, would reach about 12,00,000 by the end of this fiscal.

"BSNL, with about 31.5 lakh landlines and 8,00,000-plus mobile connections, accounts for about 59 per cent of the total telephone subscriber base in the State.

With the addition of more towns into the network and expansion of the existing towns including about 1,100 new cell sites, we expect the market to grow rapidly," he said.

BSNL also announced the launch of plastic ITC cards, which have a longer shelf life. These new cards come with various denominations ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 5,000.

General Packet Radio Service and multimedia messaging services were also launched.

Mr Kumar said BSNL was in the process of announcing the launch of a multi-gigabit, convergent IP (Internet protocol)-based infrastructure backed up by the National Internet Backbone-II that will provide convergent services through the same backbone and broadband access network.

These broadband services will be available on a digital subscriber loop (DSL) on the same copper cable that is used for connecting telephones across the country spanning 198 cities.

Within the State, BSNL plans to offer these services across 18 major towns and cities and has invited applications for the service. However, BSNL is yet to announce the access tariffs for broadband.

More Stories on : Telecommunications | Andhra Pradesh

Article E-Mail :: Comment :: Syndication :: Printer Friendly Page

Stories in this Section
Intelligroup CEO gets award

Copyright © 2004, The Hindu Business Line. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu Business Line