BSNL to expand WLL service in south Orissa

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) aims to provide WLL (wireless in local loop) services and Village Public Telephones (VPTs) in five places of Ganjam and Gajapati districts in South Orissa.

The five places where these services of BSNL would be introduced include Birikote, Kainpur, Khajuripada, Ramagiri and Golanthara. BSNL had started its WLL services in the Berhampur telecom district in 2008-09.

The telecom major has also proposed to introduce Wi-Max (Wireless Broadband) stations in 14locations of Ganjam and Gajapati districts.

Out of the 14 proposed Wi-Max stations, the equipment has already been alloted in nine locations which include Adava, Mohana, R Udayagiri, Garabandh and Kasinagar in Gajapati district and Digapahandi, Buguda, Jagannath Prasada as well as Polasara in Ganjam district, said BK Nayak, general manager of BSNL’s Berhampur telecom district (BTD).

BSNL’s mobile connections in the BTD stand at 95,387 (as on February 15, 2009) which include both pre-paid as well as post-paid connections.

The telecom service provider has 54,785 landline connections and 9959 WLL connections in the BTD. Moreover, BTD has 2,970 broadband connections and 3,654 VPTs.

Meanwhile, BSNL has planned to launch the much awaited 3G mobile services in Orissa in this month.

In the first phase, the 3G services would be launched in Bhubaneswar while the second phase of the launch would cover five other telecom districts of BSNL in the state including Berhampur, Balasore, Sambalpur, Cuttack and Rourkela.

“BSNL has already received the equipment and is all set to launch the 3G mobile services. In the Berhampur telecom district, BSNL has targeted to introduce the 3G services in three towns including Berhampur, Chhatrapur and Paralakhemundi, Nayak told Business Standard.

Berhampur has the requisite infrastructure for introduction of the 3G services and optical fibre would be installed in few other areas of the town which are currently devoid of such facilities, he added.