BSNL identifying free wi-fi spots in UP

State owned teleco had already rolled out a similar free wi-fi service in ghats of Varanasi

Bharat Sanchal Nigam Limited (BSNL) is in the process of identifying the proposed free wi-fi spots in Uttar Pradesh.

BSNL had already rolled out a similar free wi-fi service in the ghats of Varanasi, which is the parliamentary constituency of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

"We recently held an internal meeting to select spots for offering the free wi-fi services under the central government plan," BSNL (UP East Circle) senior general manager (sales and marketing) Neeraj Verma told Business Standard here this evening.

The process of identifying these spots would be completed within this week and the list sent to higher-ups for vetting and final selection, he informed.

Meanwhile, the company is upgrading its 3G infrastructure in major cities of UP to offer better customer experience. So far, Lucknow and Kanpur have been covered and other cities, including Varanasi, Allahabad etc would be covered in the next phase. "We are targetting to complete this process by July 2015."

BSNL has also been mandated to connect 37,455 village panchayats in UP (East) Circle under the ongoing National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN).

NOFN is a project to provide broadband connectivity on optical fibre to 2,50,000 village panchayats across India for the implementation of various services, such as e-health, e-education and e-governance.

The Network forms the core of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious 'Digital India' project. In UP (E), the project spans 582 blocks spread over 48 districts.

All service providers like Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), ISPs, cable TV operators etc would be given non-discriminatory access to the NOFN for launching services in rural areas.