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

Our Bureau

MANGALORE, Aug. 29

BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is to shortly launch cellular mobile services covering about 150 `important towns' with total coverage throughout Karnataka and with about 300 base stations.

Speaking to newspersons here today, the BSNL Chief General Manager (Karnataka Telecom Circle), Mr K. Padmanabhan, said that CDMA wireless in local loop facilities with limited mobility had already been provided in Bangalore, Mysore, Hassan, Kolar and Tumkur and would soon be extended to other cities in the State.

Voice over IP for national long distance traffic from Bangalore to five major cities is also to be introduced shortly. Voice over facilities using the available national Internet backbone for international long distance (ILD) traffic would also be provided shortly in association with one of the ILD providers. Moreover, three basic service providers, three ILD operators and three national long-distance operators have already obtained licenses from the Government and have entered into interconnect agreements with BSNL for supplementing all these services.

As far as Dakshina Kannada is concerned, 15,000 cellular mobile lines are planned in the first phase of operations and 26,000 in the second phase at a total cost of Rs 23 crore. The first phase will be commissioned shortly and the entire project would eventually cover all the `important towns' under the purview of Dakshina Kannada telecom district such as Mangalore, Udupi, Puttur, Sullia and Kundapur.

WLL is also being introduced in three areas — Mangalore, Belthangady and Sullia. About 1,500 lines in the rural waiting list are expected to be cleared through this while the remaining 24,000 in the waiting list, predominantly in rural areas, would be covered through wired lines and WLL by March 2003.

The Karnataka Telecom Circle's annual investment has been in the range of Rs 1,000 crore for the past four to five years, according to Mr. Padmanabhan.

The circle earns an annual revenue of Rs 2,200 crore, almost 10 per cent of the annual all-India revenue of Rs 24,000 crore. The investment during 2002-2003 is also expected to be to the tune of Rs. 1,000 crore, Mr Padmanabhan said.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section
Mobile customers reminded of ID verification

Copyright © 2002, 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