The Hindu : Kerala News : 1,200 base transmitting stations soon

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Sunday, Mar 06, 2005

Kerala

Kerala

1,200 base transmitting stations soon

By Our Staff Reporter

PATHANAMTHITTA, MARCH 5. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will commission 1,200 Base Transmitting Stations (BTSs) in the State in the next six months to provide carpet cellular coverage by December, the Chief General Manager (CGM), Telecom, S.A. Thomas, has said.

Mr. Thomas was talking to reporters during his visit to Telephone Bhavan in Thiruvalla this afternoon. He said that at present, BSNL had 710 BTS and that it would provide 9.5-lakh cellular phone connections in the State in the next six months. The CGM said that network problems with Cellone would be rectified once the new stations became operational.

Telecom highway

Mr. Thomas said BSNL was all set to make a leap in the telecommunication sector in the State with its Broad Band Service (BBS). BBS was first launched in Ernakulam. As of now, there were 120 connections in Ernakulam, he said.

Mr. Thomas said that BBS would be soon launched in Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode, and that BSNL would provide 45,000 connections by December. With its hi-tech facilities of tele-video conferencing, interactive distance education programme, entertainment, tele-banking, etc., BBC was ultimately a telecom highway that was part of the national Internet backbone.

Kerala, with its telephone density rate of 9.5 per 100 rural population, was the highest in the whole of rural India. The telecom slogan was to commute less and communicate more, he said.

The CGM said that the State had a waiting list of 3.9 lakh applications for phone connections as on March 1 and that it could be cleared by the end of the year.

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