VSNL plans to up broadband investment

The Tatas-owned Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd (VSNL) is planning to ramp up investment in broadband during the current financial year.

"We will allocate about 70 per cent of our total investments during 2004-05 in areas like broadband and national long distance (NLD)," said Prateek Pashine, head, retail segment.

The Department of Telecommunications is expected to come out with a broadband policy in the next few days. The policy is expected to give a fillip to broadband usage in the country.

In the initial phase VSNL would roll out metropolitan area networks in eight cities across the country by March 2005, Pashine said.

These cities include Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Pune and Hyderabad along with four metros. These networks would be able to carry huge gigabytes of voice, video and data services, Pashine added.