Shillong, Aug. 9: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will provide Wi-Fi hotspots at 34 locations in three cities of the Northeast, Shillong, Aizawl and Agartala, this month. It will also roll out its virtual landline connection, ASEEM plan, to customers in the region.
BSNL (Northeast circle-1) chief general manager K.K. Saxena told reporters here that in Shillong, the capital of Meghalaya, at least 10 locations have been identified as Wi-Fi hotspots. Twelve locations each have been identified in Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram, and in Agartala, the capital of Tripura.
"The Internet speed will be 20mbps (megabits per second). Customers can avail Internet services through their laptop or mobile in the Wi-Fi hotspots coverage zone through BSNL Wi-Fi, BSNL broadband and BSNL 4G+," Saxena said.
BSNL has introduced the virtual landline connection at Rs 99 per year offering free unlimited call forwarding facility to landline subscribers in all telecom circles.
Under the new BSNL scheme, customers are allowed to choose a landline connection number (fixed line indicator), after which, all incoming calls to the number will be automatically forwarded to one number of any network of the customer's choice without additional charges.
Commenting on the third international Internet gateway (IIG), where India imported 10 Gbps (gigabits per second) bandwidth Internet at Akhaura checkpost in Agartala from an Internet port at Cox Bazar in Bangladesh, Saxena said the IIG has improved connectivity in the Northeast.
"After the IIG was laid, the data volume has increased in the region," he said.
The laying of optic fibre cables by the BSNL in Assam and RailTel in other states of the Northeast is in progress.
Laying of optic fibre cables will help villages get access to broadband Internet by using gigabit passive optical network (Gpon) technology of Bharatnet.
BSNL, RailTel, and Power Grid Corporation are executing the Bharatnet project under Digital India initiative to connect 2.5 lakh villages across the country with broadband Internet.
