State-owned telecom major Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) will provide broadband connectivity to 2.50 lakh villages across the country over the next 2-3 years, a top company official said today.
"As a part of providing broadband connectivity to rural areas, in next 2-3 years, BSNL would cover at least 2.50 lakh villages in the country through wireline, wimax technology or through fibre connectivity," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Kuldeep Goyal told reporters here.
"The country has over 6 lakh villages out of which 2.50 lakh are gram panchayats. We intend to cover all these 2.50 lakh villages by providing high-speed broadband," he said.
He said there were 29,000 telephone exchanges in rural areas and of this wireline broadband was available in 24,000 exchanges.
"No other operator has provided broadband in rural areas on wire line. Only the BSNL provides it...," Goyal said.
In addition, BSNL, under a partnership with Union HRD Ministry, would set up a network connecting 419 universities and 20,000 colleges through broadband with high bandwidth capacity, he said.
