Dts Mobile Services In 17 More Cities
The Department of Telecom Services (DTS) is expanding its Wireless in Local Loop (WLL)-based mobile services to 17 more cities.
On May 22, the department placed an order of Rs 125 crore for supply of Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) and Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) equipment.
Escorts Communication has bagged the Rs 85.47 crore order for supplying CDMA-based equipment to cater to 39,000 lines. Swedish major Ericsson has won the Rs 38 crore contract for TDMA-based equipment that will cater to 17,000 lines. Both the TDMA and CDMA equipment will operate in the 800 mhz frequency range.
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The equipment supplied by Escorts will be used for operating mobile services in Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Eranakulam, Pune, Patna, Indore, Jaipur, Gurgaon, Lucknow and Kanpur. Of these, DTS plans to install mobile operations of 5,000 lines each in Chennai, Hyderabad and Ahmedabad. In the other cities, the service will cater to 3,000 subscribers each.
Of the 17,000 Ericsson-supplied TDMA lines, Calcutta and Bangalore will get 5,000 lines each, Ludhiana and Chandigarh 3,000 each, and 1,000 lines will be activated in Guwahati.
The department intends to provide mobile services in 20 circles by next year, and plans to commence operations in 18 cities in four states by September. The proposed service, however, will be based on the Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM). "The WLL equipment will help us introduce services in areas that have so far lagged behind," a DoT sources said.
Work for installing the equipment has already begun in four states. The pilot project in the four states is being taken up for about 35,000 lines, which will be expanded later.
The 18 cities where DTS proposes to introduce cellular services in the first stage include the four state capitals namely, Patna, Hyderabad, Chennai and Calcutta.