BSNL to launch 3G service

04 November 2009

Bharat Sanghar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) will offer 3G mobile phone service in Mangalore by January-end, if everything goes as planned. The company had announced in February that 3G services would be available in Mangalore, Manipal and Udupi by the year-end.

Subscribers opting for this service and possessing a 3G handset will get high-speed Internet on their mobiles and will be able to see callers. It will also facilitate video-conferencing. Video-gaming will be another option available.

Y.C. Mishra, Principal General Manager, Dakshina Kannada Telecom District, told that the 3G service would be offered in Mangalore and select suburbs to begin with by January-end and extended later to Manipal and Udupi.

Mishra said that BSNL was aiming at providing 40,000 3G lines. The cost of providing this service would be about Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 8,000 a line. The subscriber’s cost for availing the service would be announced later.

Customers would have to change their SIM cards to avail the service once it was launched; he said and added that BSNL was offering broadband services in all its exchanges in the telecom district.

Coverage

On the complaints from consumers regarding poor coverage, Mishra said the network would improve by December and vastly change by March 2010. As of now, BSNL had activated about 280 towers in Dakshina Kannada and Udupi districts.

Plans

In November and December, about 80 more towers would be commissioned and another 100 would start functioning by March 2010, he said.

With 460 towers, BSNL signals would be available all along the national highways and tourist centres of the two districts, railway lines, besides most other areas, Mishra said.

source mangaloremithr.com