The Hindu Business Line : BSNL to take broadband connectivity to the Nilgiris

BSNL has offered to process, on priority, the applications for broadband facility from agri-business units in the Nilgiris. "A number of agri-business ventures are coming up in the Nilgiris. The locations are mostly remote. But they need world-class communication facilities because of their international and upcountry business. We have more than one lakh subscribers to our landline and mobile phones because of our commitment to reach the rural belt. We are keen to extend a similar facility for broadband," Mr K. Muthuswamy, General Manager, BSNL, Nilgiris, told Business Line.

Agri-business units in the Nilgiris cultivate, package and ship tea, coffee and spices, horticulture products such as strawberry, pears, plums, peaches, bears and oranges, floriculture products such as cut flowers, ornamental flowers, foliages, fillers and bonsais, as also vegetables such as carrots, cauliflowers, cabbages, potatoes, radish and beans. While flowers go mostly to Bangalore, other products go across the country. Substantial portion of the production is exported.

Expanding coverage

"Rural location can never be an excuse for inaccessibility in this hi-tech communication era. Since BSNL is the largest service provider here, agri-business units are keen to get the benefit of broadband," said Dr S. Ramu, Executive Director, Hill Queen Agri Tech (India) P Ltd, a large-scale agri-business enterprise.

"We will bring in broadband facility in 45 out of the 46 exchanges in the district this fiscal. We have requested prospective users to apply now itself so that we could plan the connectivity at the earliest," said Mr G. Satyanarayana Reddy, Deputy General Manager.

Mr A.S. Egaya, Principal Manager, Coimbatore, said, "We have erected 37 towers for mobile and will commission 19 more this fiscal taking the total to 56," he said.

Mr T.S. Kuppuswamy, Principal General Manager (Operations), Tamil Nadu Circle, Chennai, said that the broadband facility in the Nilgiris will provide video facility too. "

More Stories on : Broadband | Tamil Nadu

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

Stories in this Section
New switching module for SAN

Kumar Mangalam to head Idea Cellular board

Go glocal with SMS

The V Phase 5 by March next

Indian firms working on intelligent cars

Ultra wide band offers many applications

Fujitsu launches

Tech Mahindra files draft prospectus for IPO

SQL Star to implement e-biz processes for Pitti

Reliance Comm to tie up with Intel to offer Net connectivity

BSNL to take broadband connectivity to the Nilgiris

CeBIT to be partner for Kolkata Infocom

Billdesk gets $7.5-m funding