25,000 villages to be covered by BSNL broadband by July

31 March 2008

Bangalore: More than 25,000  villages will be on India's broadband map once Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India's largest telecommunications service provider, expands its rural broadband access offering using network access provided by Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN).

BSNL is planning to deploy NSN multi play solutions, which would allow the telecommunications service provider to deliver cost effective high speed Internet access and virtual private networks among others to its customers.

The network will also enable BSNL to provide connectivity to community service centres (CSCs) and other e-governance locations.

''With high speed Internet service of BSNL, the rural broadband project is suitably poised to bridge digital divide and connect more than 25,000 villages in India by delivering high speed broadband services'', said Kuldeep Goyal, chairman and managing director of BSNL.

NSN will also supply customer premises equipment that will enable BSNL to provide speeds of up to 8Mbps using ADSL2+ for its subscribers over its existing copper infrastructure. The solution will be ready for commercial operation by July 2008.

According to NSN, India at present has around 3.4 million broadband connections, of which 1.7 million are provided by BSNL. Expanding broadband density in urban and rural areas using ADSL2+ technology, BSNL now plans to bring around 25000 villages under its broadband service plan soon.