NEW DELHI, INDIA: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), recently rolled out its first Rural Broadband Kiosk at village Savlaj in Sangli District of Maharashtra.

The project is part of the company scheme titled 'Wire-Line Broadband Connectivity to Rural & Remote Areas' that has got underway and is basically aimed at making information technology work to the advantage of the villagers, said a press release.

The project is spread over three years and would witness setting up of 30,000 rural broadband kiosks across the country.

The rural Broadband kiosks allow full triple play (voice, video and data) services to the rural customers, the release added.

Apart from Internet surfing, the kiosks would offer various value added services to the rural populace in form of utility bill payments, railway ticketing, mobile handsets content download etc.

In addition, services of local interest such as agricultural trading, education on crops, micro finance etc will be unique feature of each kiosk, it added.

BSNL plans to adopt a franchisees model to expand the reach of the project at the local level for this purpose.

The project is being supported by USO fund of Department of Telecommunications in form of subsidy for setting up and operating these kiosks. USO fund shall extend a quarterly subsidy of Rs. 20,000 for a period of three years for operating these kiosks.

The kiosks would be linked using ADSL2+ technology at speeds as high as 2 Mbps, the release added.