According to a top company official, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) expects to squash its third generation (3G) mobile service by next june, using the technology of Sweden’s Ericsson. “We hope to receive the equipment from Ericsson from December. It will take some six months to roll out the services. We will earmark around 10 million lines for the initial launch,” according to the official. He was referring to the tender for 45 million lines worth $1.75 billion floated two years ago, where Ericsson was given 60 percent of the order - and out of that, 10 million have now been earmarked for the 3G service. Advantage of 3G service is that it allows much faster communications and also a wide range of applications such as high-speed net access, video calls, fast music and video downloads, interactive gaming and global positioning over internet.
Wireless Federation » archive for 'BSNL'
BSNL makes 3G a reality by next June (India)
- August 7th, 2008
- 12:26 pm
Indian Government announces 3G spectrum auction guidelines (India)
- August 5th, 2008
- 11:27 am
The Government of India has announced the guidelines for auction and allotment of the 3G spectrum. The 2.1 GHz bands wll be allocated for 3G services by conducting an auction.
An individual who holds an UAS license and has past experience of running 3G telecom services can bid for 3G spectrum. The auction will be held in blocks of 2×5 MHz in the 2.1 GHz band. Depending on the availability in different areas, the number of blocks to be auctioned will vary from 5-10. The technolgy used should co-exist with other technologies, services and applications operating in the 2.1 GHz band. MTNL will be allocated one block in Delhi and Mumbai metro service areas and BSNL in other service areas at a price equal to the highest bid in the respective service area. Soon a committe will be named by the Government, which will develop the auction process.
Commercial 3G services offered by BSNL-MTNLwithin 6 months (India)
- August 4th, 2008
- 2:01 pm
With the announcement of guidelines for the 3G auction Process in India, it has been make known that commercial 3G services will be running within 6 months, according to a media report. MTNL and BSNL will be allocated one block of spectrum each in Delhi/Mumbai and the rest of the country respectively. BSNL chairman Kuldeep Goyal confirmed that, ‘We will roll out an all-India 3G network in six months starting from the north and east. As part of the arrangement both BSNL and MTNL will have to match the highest bid after the auction is completed’.
There is a possibility that second round of 3G auction may occur. DoT said that they anticipates to offer up to five licences per circle in the first round, but some regions may see up to ten licences made available through a second round of auctions . It is estimated that second round would take place in mid-2009. The reserve price for the second round will be higher as compare to the initial auctions.
BSNL’s EVDO offers 3G services (India)
- August 4th, 2008
- 5:00 am
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) Evolution data Optimized is offering third generation (3G) services, Department of Telecom (DoT) confirmed. Its been more than a year, BSNL has been providing 2.4 Mbps EVDO service in selected locations of the country. This service has started even before the Government announced its policy for 3G spectrum allocation.
Commission Siddhartha Behura told that public sector units such as BSNL and Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited (MTNL) are incumbents and they needed government’s support and concession to take on big players.
However, Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman-cum-Managing Director of BSNL, refuted Behrua’s claim and said the EVDO service falls under the 2.5G category. “EVDO is certainly 3G, as it has been standardized by 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 (3GPP2) as part of the CDMA2000 family of standards,” according to Atul Chitnis, Senior Vice-President of Geodesic Information Systems Limited.
Rent-Free landlines for rural BSNL customers (India)
- July 31st, 2008
- 5:42 am
In a move to capture the rural market , Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. will provide rent-free telephones to customers in villages. According to General Manager Hari Shankar Sharma, BSNL, this scheme would commence from August 1 and would be made applicable only for those rural telephone exchanges that have the capacity of 1,000 phone lines.
BSNL-MTNL may enter a merger (India)
- July 28th, 2008
- 12:37 pm
Government has initiated steps to merge state-run firms BSNL and MTNL. The proposed merger may happen after BSNL’s initial public offer (IPO), according to government sources.
“The proposal was discussed during the NDA regime and shelved. With BSNL’s IPO looking a clear possibility now, the proposal is being reviewed,” an official in the department of telecommunication (DoT) said. “Once BSNL is listed on the Bombay Stock Exchange, we can explore various possibilities, which may include an open offer or a share swap deal,” he added.
Trai recommendations accepted on IPTV (India)
- July 28th, 2008
- 9:13 am
The government has accepted the recommendations of broadcast tribunal Trai on Internet Protocol TV, setting the stage for faster growth of this new television channel distribution platform.
As part of the recommendations, the uplinking/downlinking norms would be amended to enable the broadcasters to provide signals to all distributors of TV channels, including IPTV service providers, once appropriate provisions are made in the policy.
IPTV segment has all the heavyweight players MTNL, BSNL, Bharti, Reliance Communications which have invested heavily in the network.
MTNL has already started the service. In the meantime, some of the service providers have experienced difficulties in getting television channels from the broadcasters at prices on which DTH service providers are getting in line with Trai’s determination of a-la-carte and bouquet prices on advisory basis.
To have a smooth flow of channels for subscribers, Trai has received a consensus from the broadcasters to adopt non-discriminatory price regime on the composition of bouquets and pricing of channels on a-la-carte and bouquets basis for IPTV services.
According to ministry official these steps should facilitate and expedite the conclusion of interconnection agreements between broadcasters and service providers to offer the services on competitive prices once appropriate provisions in policy are made by the government.
Rs 9 to call Nepal, thanks to BSNL (India)
- July 28th, 2008
- 7:50 am
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) , India’s largest telecom provider will soon slash its international call charges to Nepal, a top company official said. “As per the new rates, the BSNL subscribers calling to Nepal will have to pay Rs.9 per minute instead of the present rate of Rs.12,” said BSNL general manager for marketing Rajesh Kumar.
“The new charges to Nepal can be implemented from Aug 1 itself,” said the official.
BSNL to join Global Telecoms race
- July 25th, 2008
- 2:36 pm
Indian Government proposed $10 billion listing of BSNL that would push the state owned telco into the big leagues in terms of market capitalisation. India’s Finance BSNL to begin laying the groundwork for the IPO and the operator itself is preparing for talks with employee trade unions, quoted by top BSNL sources. The proposed listing has been on the cards for some time, but objections from the unions, including threatened strike action, led the state to put its plans on ice. If it succeeds this time around, the government aims to raise 400 billion rupees from the sale of a 10% stake, valuing the company as a whole at a massive $100 billion.
According to the sources, its fixed-line and mobile subscribers number 83 million, and has announced a tender for a further 93 million GSM lines, an order that is estimated to be worth $10 billion.
In terms of revenue, BSNL ranked 29th in Total Telecom’s Global 100 for the year 2006-2007, turning over $7.2 billion, according to local accounting standards.
BSNL’s US$6.5 billion GSM tender opening delayed (India)
- July 23rd, 2008
- 6:51 am
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India, has delayed the date for opening its giant US$6.5 billion tender for GSM infrastructure kit. The bids,due on July 16, will now open on August 30th, the reason being the flood of interest in the tender.
The company has got more than 21,000 queries from the vendors after the draft tender was put on the BSNL Web site. In order to clarify vendors’ queries there has been a delay.
The US$6.5 billion price tag is based on a US$70 cost per GSM line - and the tender is for a total of 93 million GSM lines. The highly convoluted 13 million GSM lines tender last year was won by Ericsson who won the bid with an offer at US$90 per line. The government, which owns BSNL has however capped the network expenditure for this financial year at US$4.7 billion - of which at least US$500 million has already been allocated to a CDMA contract.
