BSNL to upgrade its infrastructure

Chennai: With competition round the corner, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) (www.bsnl.co.in), the sole basic services operator in Chennai, is getting its acts together.

Apart from launching new services like wireless in local loop (WLL) and cellular telephony, the corporation is investing Rs 201 crore in infrastructure development to improve its service quality in a city wherefrom it earns the highest returns. "Our ultimate aim is to have an exchange within 2.5-km radius of every subscriber," says BSNL-Chennai chief general manager K Venkataramani.

The telephone giant has 1 million working connections in Chennai and has a capacity to service 1.9 million connections (including 5,000 WLL lines). BSNL serves this subscriber-base with 35 main-switching units (MSUs) and 118 remote-switching units (RSUs). "During this calendar year we plan to commission six MSUs and 40 RSUs. Once BSNL sets up 175 RSUs, the telephone density in the city is expected to go up further from the current levels of 15.94 per 100 people. But that will take another two years to happen," he says.

In addition, the corporation is implementing a customer-access network that will pave way for bandwidth on demand in the metro network at an outlay of Rs 30 crore. A Rs 90-crore project is on for installing digital-loop carrier systems to facilitate high, reliable data circuits in subscribers' premises, apart from offering voice services. In respect of its WLL service, BSNL will be increasing the base stations to 11 for a better coverage. "The enhanced capacity will provide additional 5, 500 lines on the WLL technology," says Venkataramani.

He says the cellular service will be commissioned in Chennai in eight months' time. "Currently Motorola is doing a survey to estimate the kind of equipment we require to introduce the service." While Motorola will supply the equipment, customers are free to choose the handsets. In the first phase, BSNL-Chennai will give 50, 000 lines and in the second it will be 80, 000 lines.