The Hindu Business Line : BSNL to invest Rs 1,600 cr on broadband equipment

Chennai, Jan. 2 State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will invest Rs 1,600 crore in the next two years on broadband equipment, including Wi-Max and optical fibre, according to its Chairman and Managing Director, Mr Kuldeep Goyal.

The investment will enable BSNL to add a capacity of around 8 million broadband connections. “We are working on a target to have around nine million broadband connections in the next two years,” he told newspersons.

The government’s target is to have around 20 million broadband connections by 2010-end from the present 5 million (BSNL alone has 3 million). “While the combined market share of BSNL and MTNL could be 50 per cent in two years, on our own we should be having around 9 million broadband connections,” he said.

Mr Goyal said BSNL has around 30,000 exchanges in rural areas. Of this, 23,000 exchanges have been provided with equipment for rolling out broadband connectivity. Before the end of the current fiscal, all the exchanges will have the necessary equipment.

Rural rollout

BSNL is also looking at wireless technology to rollout broadband in rural areas and has recently placed orders for 1,000 WiMax equipment. There are around two lakh broadband customers in rural areas, he said.

Mr Goyal said BSNL was in advanced talks with the government for using Universal Service Obligation fund to rollout broadband services in rural areas.

“The government will give equipment to people in rural areas at a subsidised cost and customers need to pay only for the services. Equipment will be almost free for them.”

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