Madikeri: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BNSL), Kodagu, has proposed to establish 20 additional mobile towers to cover all parts of the district in the next six months.

In addition to the 15 working mobile stations (base terminal stations— BTS) in Kodagu, BSNL has drawn up plans to set up 20 more towers to boost the number of cellphone connections and increase efficiency, Deputy General Manager, BSNL, Kodagu, K. Jagannath, told The Hindu.

The working mobile stations are at Madikeri (three stations), Virajpet, Kushalnagar, Somwarpet, Gonicoppa, Polibetta, Sunticoppa, Siddapura, Shanivarasante, Kutta, Bhagamandala, Napoklu and Srimangala.

The new stations will come up at Ammathi, Ponnampet, Balele, Thithimathi, Murnad, Chettalli, Cherambane, Bettageri, 7th Hoskote, Kudige, Hebbale, Madapura, Madikeri (fourth station), and the second BTS stations at Somwarpet, Virajpet, Gonicoppa and Kushalnagar, Kodlipet, Kanur, Hudikeri, Mr. Jagannath said.

Cellphone connections in the district would go up by 12,000 from the present 14,600, Mr. Jagannath said. Landline connections were restricted in the range of 2.5 kilometres to four kilometres in a local area exchange. The equipped capacity of Kodagu Telecom is 62,508 and the working connections (landline) are 49,292.

He said CDMA technology Wireless Local Loop (WLL) had been commissioned in the district. As many as 449 connections were working in Madikeri. In Somwarpet, 70 connections had been provided. Virajpet was likely to get the facility soon. The WLL facility in Madikeri is being replaced by a new equipment which would allow Internet access.

The Kushalnagar exchange had been upgraded into a multi-base module (MBM) exchange. Similar work was in progress in Gonicoppa, Mr. Jagannath said. All rural exchanges in the district had been converted into AN-RAX, which would enable subscribers to have facilities similar to those available in the main exchanges.

He said five on-line cash counters had been set up at Madikeri, Kushalnagar, Gonicoppa, Kushalnagar and Virajpet. It is significant that all exchanges are now working on optical fire media, Mr. Jagannath said.

Asked about Broadband services, Mr. Jagannath said testing of the equipment was going on for knowing the "acceptance" of the system. To start with, 15 connections were being given in the city and later it would be expanded based on demand. Over 100 applications had been received for Broadband connections in the city

"Dot Spoft", a customer-friendly single window facility, had been launched for providing telephone connections, issuing and accepting bills and so on through "on-line", Mr. Jagannath said. Upgrading of the existing optical fibre networks such as DWDS technology and ring routes was in progress for providing fail-free connectivity to all exchanges, including rural exchanges. The fault rate had been reduced to single digit, Mr. Jagannath said.

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