BSNL unveils Rs1,000 cr services upgrade with CtrlS, Skype

State-owned telecom firm Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has undertaken a Rs1,000 crore investment plan which includes the launch of VoIP and setting up of Wi-Fi hotspots at tourist places, a top official said today.

"We have taken several measures. Only last week we began migration of landline customers to next generation services. It will provide lot of new services to customers. Second, we are experimenting with BSNL Skype.

''For the Wi-Fi hotspots, 14 centres in tourist places in South zone have been identified," BSNL director N K Gupta said.

"These are the plans which I said entailing Rs1,000 crore investments. It will take at least five to six months [to roll out]", he told reporters in New Delhi, after launching the fourth Internet Data Centre established with datacentre infrastructure firm CtrlS.

BSNL's other such internet data centres are in Ahmedabad, Faridabad and Hyderabad.

CtrlS will provide the infrastructure facility while BSNL will provide the bandwidth and space for the service.

"This is part of revenue sharing between CtrlS and BSNL. It will be able to host services; can be used as software as a service and cloud computing," Gupta said.

According to a company official, the service would be offered to corporates and companies like National Payment Corporaton Chennai office and Electronic Corporation of Tamil Nadu have evinced interest in the service.