Calcutta, Jan. 10: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to set up fixed wireless locations across the country to allow users gain access to broadband services at airports, railway stations, hotels and convention centres and even when they are on the move.

The project is estimated to cost around Rs 260 crore. It will help create a network of wireless areas ? hotspots ? for broadband access using WiFi (wireless fidelity) and WiMax (worldwide interoperability for microwave access) technologies, which provide connectivity at speeds up to 75 mbps against the current benchmark of 256 kbps.

Calcutta Telephones sources confirmed that the telecom major has already identified 15 cities where it will set up 300 WiFi hotspots in a phased manner during the current year. These locations will be chosen depending on the customer usage profile in each city. For the WiMax rollout, which will initially be on an experimental basis, BSNL has selected Calcutta, Chennai, Bangalore and the satellite towns of Mumbai and Delhi.

While WiFi can provide connectivity in a fixed area with a radius of around 30 metres and is comparable to a local area network (LAN), WiMax can cover an area with a radius of 30 miles and is similar to a wide area network (WAN).

BSNL will launch its DataOne broadband services commercially on January 14 in Chennai, Calcutta, Hyderabad, Bangalore, Mumbai and Delhi.

Initially, subscribers will be offered high-speed Internet services. Other services like VPN (virtual private network), multicasting, video conferencing, video-on-demand and broadcast applications will be added later. The company has set itself a target to acquire 1 million customers in 198 cities where it has the licence to provide broadband services in the next 12 months.