BSNL seeks more spectrum for 3G

Even as the policy on spectrum for 3G services is yet to come, State-run BSNL has sought additional spectrum for introducing the advanced third generation mobile services in the country.

BSNL has sought additional spectrum from the department of telecom for introducing 3G services and future plans are proposed to be made on the 3G front, which will enable convergence of services across the network be it wireless or wireline media to deliver the same, A K Sinha, CMD, BSNL said in Srinagar.

The PSU is gearing up to start its 3G services by the end of this year. It already has started the process of procurement of equipment for the service.

BSNL is planning to modernise it NLD network where it would introduce IP TAX technology, which would carry voice over data network.

The project currently under a pilot stage would be completed by the end of March 2006 and later would also be introduced on the local exchange network too, he said.

Sinha also said the PSU could expect to have a mobile subscriber base of 1 crore (10 million) from the current 98 lakh, within the next month.

Today BSNL rolled out a 4 million GSM line expansion for North region and would soon launch the remaining capacity in east and south zone, he said.

He said keeping in line with the government target of 250 million phones by 2007, BSNL planned to raise the expected capacity of 23 million by this year-end to about 90 million by 2007 on wireless.

Sinha said BSNL intended to increase the tele density of the PSU network alone to 11 per cent by the end of 2007-08 from the current 4.8 per cent and make telephones available 'on demand'.

In rural areas, BSNL is targeting to increase tele density to 4 per cent from the current 1.6 per cent. So far 12.96 million rural connections and more than 5.1 lakh village public telephones have been provided by BSNL, which is gearing up to clear the waiting list by end of March 2006.