The Hindu : Business : BSNL launches cellular expansion from J&K

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 01, 2005

Business

Business

BSNL launches cellular expansion from J&K

Sandeep Dikshit

Will help promote tourism and economic growth

CONNECTING PEOPLE: The Chief Minister of Jammu & Kashmir, Mufti Mohammad Syeed, and the Union Minister of Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran, launching BSNL's expansion in Srinagar on Tuesday. — Photo: Nissar Ahmad

SRINAGAR: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has used the ebbing of violence in Jammu & Kashmir to launch a major expansion plan of cellular services in north India. In all, the company plans to introduce three crore additional lines over the next two years. Putting the expansion in perspective, this will be equal to the total lines added all over the country in the past 50 years, both landline and wireless.

Speaking on the occasion on Tuesday, the Union Communications and Information Technology Minister, Dayandihi Maran, underlined the point about choosing Srinagar to launch BSNL's cellular mobile expansion. "With improvement and more widespread communication facilities, the people of J & K can more fully interact with their brethren in other parts of the country."

Mr. Maran was confident of the mobile roll-out contributing to economic development, especially because BSNL's expansion was taking place in areas shunned as non-profitable by private cellular companies.

The J & K Chief Minister, Mufti Mohammad Sayeed, said tourism and the sense of security among the people would improve with the expansion of mobile services.

Mobile phones had allayed apprehensions back home after two tourist hot spots of Dal Gate and Phalagam had witnessed violent incidents. "There were great security apprehensions but the reality has proved otherwise. I am glad Kashmir was chosen as the launching pad."

The BSNL Chairman and Managing Director, A. K. Sinha, declared his company's intention to modernise the existing network and leverage new technologies to further improve the delivery of services.

"Now we are four to five months behind the developed world in introducing new technologies,'' he said, adding that Wi-Fi (busy places such as airports and hotels where Internet can be accessed without wires) would be available in 24 cities at 300 hotspots and pilot projects on Wi-Max (said to be an improvement over Wi-Fi) would be undertaken in ten cities, including Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata and satellite towns of Delhi and Mumbai. In addition, the long distance network would see the introduction of the latest technologies.

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