The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : BSNL to roll out ‘3G’ services tomorrow

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Tuesday, Mar 02, 2010
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

BSNL to roll out ‘3G’ services tomorrow

Suresh Krishnamoorthy

The facility will be launched in 29 cities and towns in State

Subscriber with a smart phone can watch films, download music, transfer data while on the move
BSNL-AP allotted one slot of 5 megahertz giving it capacity to offer ’3G’ for 3.3 lakh customers

HYDERABAD: After a number of delays, the Andhra Pradesh circle of the State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is all set to launch ‘3G’ services on CellOne, its mobile platform, on Wednesday, with an entry-level cost of Rs. 120 towards the cost of a new SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) card and tariffs of local voice and video calls at around 30 paise a minute for BSNL network and 50 paise for other networks.

Even as the private telecom service providers are waiting anxiously for spectrum auctions to decide their share of the pie, the BSNL has stolen a march over them by virtue of being State-owned. What does it mean for the subscriber ?

Faster access

“Apart from having faster access speeds of Internet on the move, it means that with a smart phone, a person can watch films, download music, transfer data at high speeds (384 KBPS while on move and up to 2 MB while being stationary) and a host of other services.

This is now possible. The stage is now set for the launch of ‘3G’ services now in 29 cities and towns across the State and the 23 district headquarters apart, places include Tirupati, Kakinada, Bhimavaram, Prasanthi Nilayam, Shamshabad Airport, Medchal and Patancheru Industrial Area, said G.V. Reddy, General Manager, BSNL-AP (Network Planning & Execution).

As for the spectrum, he said BSNL-AP was allocated one slot of five megahertz and that this gave the circle a planned capacity to provide 3G for 3.3 lakh CellOne connections.

The Andhra Pradesh Circle of the State-owned BSNL has almost completed installation of the equipment needed to offer ‘3G’ on CellOne in December.

Sets target

The BSNL now aims at acquiring 3.5 lakh new customers. When the ‘3G’ generation service is commissioned, subscribers will virtually have the web world in their mobiles at speeds as good as those on a computer.

One can take video phone snap shots, have mobile broadband, watch television through video streaming, push to talk screen shot and download music, to name a few, Mr.G.V. Reddy, General Manager, BSNL-AP (Network Planning & Execution), says the wait is just for the killer application to utilise the huge bandwidth available now that the spectrum has been allocated.

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