Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will use a wireless broadband network that it’s setting up for a large computer kiosk network for the Union government to offer up to 85,000 customers high-speed wireless broadband services, reports Mint.
In April, the IT department handed over Rs160 crore to BSNL to set up a high-speed data network connecting 35,000 so-called community service centres that could issue certificates, register births and deaths etc. —part of a scheme to set up 100,000 such centres across India. The Wimax network will cover a total area of around 700,000 sq. km and have 1,000 cell-sites or towers with a range of 15km radius each. BSNL will buy around 85,000 customer-end equipment, to be rented out to its residential and commercial customers. Separately, the state-owned telecom company plans to set up a countrywide, mobile high-speed data network in a revenue-share model with equipment and service vendors with an investment of up to Rs1,000 crore in the first year. [see related links]