BSNL picks WiLL for rural telephony
Manoj Gairola
NEW DELHI
IT’S advantage Wireless in Local Loop in the rural telephony sweepstakes, as Bharat Sanchar Nigam selected WiLL technology over GSM (used in cellular mobile services) for the first round of equipment procurement.
BSNL is purchasing CDMA-based WiLL equipment worth Rs 1,800 crore (approximately US $400 million) for providing 6 lakh (600,000)lines in villages. It has placed orders with LG, Indian Telephone Industries and Himachal Futuristic Communications for the equipment.
LG has bagged orders worth Rs 900 crore for supplying the equipment of a total capacity of 3 lakh lines. HFCL, the largest private telecom equipment manufacturer in the country, and the government-owned ITI have got orders worth Rs 450 crore each for supplying the equipment of total capacity of 150,000 lines each.
The companies will supply the equipment during the next financial year, said BSNL officials.
Currently, more than 2 lakh villages out of a total of 600,000 are without a telephone. BSNL will be in a position to provide telephones in all the villages after getting the CDMA equipment.
BSNL will also procure GSM systems for the village telephones during next round of tendering, said sources.
An internal committee of BSNL has said that both the both GSM and CDMA technologies are suited for the rural areas.
Earlier, the department of telecommunications used the MARR technology to provide telephones in villages. However, maintenance of the MARR-based telephones was a big problem.
Consequently, between 25 to 40 per cent of the village public telephones are not working.
``We will replace all the VPTs which are based on old technology with the latest technology phones,’’ said Paswan.
The cost of a VPT based on the conventional wire-network is between Rs 1.5 to Rs 2 lakh. However the cost will come down by less than half if the CDMA and GSM technologies are used, say the officials.
BSNL is also considering satellite phones for providing connections in villages. Presently, London-based Inmarsat is providing 400 VPTs using the GMPCS technology.
Sources said BSNL is also considering Very Small Aperture Terminal technology for providing the village telephones. |
