The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Tata Teleservices to link schools with Internet

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Friday, Sep 14, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Tata Teleservices to link schools with Internet

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL) will be linking several Government schools across the State with Internet free of cost to provide distance learning, in association with Microsoft, NASSCOM and Qualcomm.

Launching Tata Indicom’s ‘Samsung Explore’ handset, priced at Rs. 5,499, here on Thursday, chief operating officer of TTSL’s Andhra Pradesh circle Sanjeev Khera said that the distance learning project was a joint corporate social responsibility initiative.

TTSL, which was providing connectivity to 350 towns and 7,000 villages as of now, would expand the network to connect 500 towns and 9,000 villages by the end of this year. The company was presently mapping its cell sites and the schools located in the villages.

As part of the distance learning project, the schools would be provided with computers also. Microsoft and Qualcomm would provide the technology transfer to implement the project. Mr. Khera said that 15 schools, including a couple of institutions in Hyderabad, had already been connected on a pilot basis. The project would make rural students familiar to computers and Internet.

The AP circle crossed the two-million subscriber mark in August this year. The company would provide high-speed Internet through WiMAX by having numerous hotspots in the twin cities. TTSL was engaged in talks with several corporates, retail chains and the Government for locating the hotspots. Mr. Khera said that TTSL was upgrading its technology to make the services more efficient in coming 45 days.

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