BSNL to raise towers to strengthen WIMAX

Having already launched Wimax broadband service in all the major cities and tehsils of Punjab and also in Chandigarh, now State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.(BSNL) is in the process of strengthening its Wimax services in order to provide seamless service in the state.

Speaking to Business Standard, sources in BSNL Punjab Circle said, “Already we have launched our services in Punjab, making Punjab the first state in the country to be covered through Wimax Broadband service and now we are in the process of strengthening our services by adding more BTS ( Base Transceiver Stations) sites. At present, we have 350 BTS sites in the state. We are planning to increase it to 1100 sites by June 2011. As far Chandigarh is concerned, we are planning to add another 60-70 sites by June next year. At the moment, it has 60 BTS sites in Chandigarh.”

BSNL has earmarked around Rs. 70 crore in rolling out services in Punjab and Chandigarh. In Punjab, at present its WiMAX Broadband services is available in all the districts of the state covering 23 cities and expects to roll out its services in entire state in next six-seven months months. Further, it has 2500 wimax broadband customers in Punjab and targeting to have 18,000 customers by the end of this fiscal year.

He added that BSNL would be targeting SMEs, big companies, government institutions, school and colleges and also planning to connect all the upcoming common service centres through WiMAX broadband service. He further added that they had planned extensive marketing campaign for increasing awareness among the masses.

To empowered all the districts headquarters, urban areas/towns of Punjab with High Speed Super Fast Internet connectivity, BSNL has shared infrastructure with the exiting towers. Some of the important towns which are covered are Zirakpur, Mandigobindgarh, Samana, Rajpura, Muktsar, Rampurphul, Kotkapura, Abohar, Batala, Gurdaspur, jagroan, Phagwara, Khanna, for the WiMax services. The minimum speed is 512 Kbps whereas the highest speed which can be taken from WiMax is 7 Mbps.

Commenting upon the potential, he added, ‘ There is immense potential for WiMAX Broadband service in Punjab and Chandigarh but acceptability among the masses will take time."