Andhra Pradesh - Tirupati   

BSNL broadband facility by March, 2005

By Our Staff Reporter

TIRUPATI, DEC. 7. The much-awaited broadband facility of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will be reality soon.

The public sector Internet Service Provider is planning to unveil its hi-speed Internet connection by March 2005, according to Sanjaya Kumar, Chief General Manager for Andhra Pradesh.

``Dial-up connection will soon give way to broadband at 256 kbps speed and 5,000 new connections will be provided in the first phase in the State. Existing fixed line customers will be preferred," he said.

Speaking at a function here on Tuesday, Mr. Kumar said the price would be competitive and promised to peg it much lower than the cheapest service available. Rs. 22 crores had already been spent in the State for this, he added.

Picture messages

GPRS would also be introduced soon to facilitate web browsing and transfer of picture messages.

A quarter of the 1 lakh connections proposed would be allocated to the State. BSNL and MTNL had covered 94 p.c. of the market between themselves in the fixed, WLL and mobile segments, he said and exuded confidence that the private players could never make inroads into their bastion, which was predominantly rural.

Customer care

Customer care would be different hereafter with BSNL, he said elaborating that drinking water and chairs would be provided in air-conditioned rooms and no customer would need to stand in serpentine queues for his turn. The announcement system employed by banks to call token numbers would be introduced at the centre, which would work from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Holiday Home

Earlier, he laid the stone for the BSNL Holiday Home on Rayala Cheruvu road and Administrative Block-2 on Sanchar Bhavan premises here, estimated to cost about Rs. 1 crore each.

The TTD Executive Officer, Ajeya Kallam, the Municipal Chairperson K. Sankar Reddy, the TUDA Chairman, B. Karunakar Reddy, the BSNL chief engineer, P.S. Mohan Das, the general managers, A. Subba Rao (Telecom District) and B. Arunachala Rao (Operations) participated.

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