Northeast to have better mobile, broadband

NEW DELHI, INDIA: The Government is committed to provide easy and affordable access to telephone services to people of the North-East.

The Union Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology, Sachin Pilot said this in Aizawl, Mizoram today after a review of the performance of BSNL, Department of Posts, and Department of Information Technology in the North-Eastern Region, according to an official statement sent out to the media.

Pilot inaugurated a Mobile Switching Center in Aizawl for better availability of both basic mobile services and value added products and services to the people of the area.

This will enable more efficient handling of the calls and result in improved quality of service. He inaugurated BSNL’s EVDO services too, which provide high-speed broadband connectivity to CDMA mobile users.

To ensure that rural users have access to the same services, the Minister also launched WiMax services in the North-East. This is a wireless high speed broadband service and makes possible applications like e-Medicine and e-Learning. There are 19 WiMax Towers at present and 82 more would be commissioned in the current year.

The Minister said that the better telephone density and broadband services are the key initiatives of the Government to deliver better Government to citizen and business and customer services to the ‘Aam Aadmi’.

Assuring the State Government of all assistance in implementing IT-related projects, the Minister said that Aizawl would be developed as an e-District where Government functions and processes would be made available to the citizens online.

The NE-1 Circle comprising Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura have about 4.4 lakh BSNL mobile subscribers and another 1.6 lakh subscribers would be added during 2010-2011. During 2010-2011, 342 additional mobile towers would be installed to improve coverage. Over 26,000, 3G connections would be added.

Instructing all the three Departments to ensure timely implementation of expansion plans in the region, he said that BSNL would strive to ensure services in the region that are comparable with the best being offered by any private operator in the region.