PUNE: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to release 15 crore telephone lines in the next three years. The company is projecting a revenue of Rs 3000 crore for the year 2004-05.
Speaking at a seminar on 'The Future of BSNL' organized by the BSNL Employees Union, A K Sinha, chairman and managing director, BSNL said the company's international gateway would be ready when it completes the laying of the under-sea optic fibre cable between Chennai and Sri Lanka by November this year.
He said all the international calls would be routed from Chennai to Colombo and then to the world. This will enhance the revenue of BSNL, he said.
Currently, BSNL has 47.1 million lines – comprising of landlines, WLL and cellular. “By December 2007, we have to reach the figure of 250 million lines. At present, we are giving 60 to 65 lakh lines annually. However, from 2005-06, we will give 22 million lines annually,” Sinha said.
BSNL would procure 1.5 crore cellular lines. The plan is to reach a target of 2.2 crore cellular lines by the end of this year. According to him, all the BSNL zones would start giving out cellular connections in the next two to three months, thus enabling the company to become the number one cellular player in the country. At present, there are 99 lakh BSNL cellular connections.
Giving details on the company's broadband service, he said the company has given 65,000 connections in around 40 cities. BSNL plans to cover 198 cities by December taking the number of connections to 10 lakh. By December 2007, BSNL will give 6 million broadband connections. Telephone will also be given on demand in rural areas to take the tele-density from 1.7 per cent to 4 per cent, he said.
The company has demanded additional spectrum for providing 50 million GSM lines with the help of Internet protocol (IP)-based services, BSNL will offer WiFi in 15 cities with each city having 300 hotspots in hotels, colleges and universities.
WiMAX service will be offered in five cities – Chennai, Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai during the year 2006-07.
As a pilot project, 200 kilo of circuit will be replaced by IP-based technology. There are plans to shift local exchanges to IP to achieve the tele-density of 22-25 percent.
Sinha said BSNL was currently incurring a capital expenditure of Rs 10,000 crore every year, which would be increased to Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore in the next three years. He also said the company has plans to go in for acquisitions within the country and take its business abroad.
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