Guwahati, April 18: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) today pledged to boost rural connectivity in Assam under a plan to lay 422km of optical fibre in the financial year 2016-17.
"Our goal is to improve bandwidth in the remote areas of the state for which we have set a target of laying 422km of optical fibre under a regional trunk planning committee (RTPC) plan for 2016-17 fiscal," M.K. Seth, chief general manager of Assam telecom circle, BSNL, told reporters here today.
The telecom major is planning to cover 1,010 gaon panchayats across 91 blocks in 18 districts of the state during 2016-17 under the National Optical Fibre Network Project. "We have already linked 589 gaon panchayats with optical fibre network," Seth said.
The telecom major today reiterated its holistic approach to gear up its infrastructure, including putting in place a next generation network (NGN) to cope with the frequency spectrum problem - of providing adequate bandwidth for a growing population.
"Signals can get weak because bandwidth has remained the same while population has increased. It's here that we are infusing technology in the form of the next generation network that we plan to introduce this year. Such a network helps connect landline to mobile networks among others through WiFi. We will be installing WiFi hotspots at prominent locations to facilitate the network," he said.
BSNL has during 2015-16 commissioned 7,000 lines in Dispur, 2,000 in Noonmati and 1,000 lines in Dharapur under the next generation network in phase one.
"We plan to commission another 23,756 lines across 11 sites in Kamrup, Dibrugarh and Bongaigaon districts during the financial year 2016-17 in phase two," Seth said.
The facilities the telecom major will provide to next generation network subscribers include digital phone service, fixed mobile convergence and multi-media video conferencing among others.
"Landline and mobile (postpaid) billing can be done through a single system. A pre-paid landline facility through recharge voucher will also be there," he said.
BSNL is also planning to install seven multi-protocol label switching routers within the next three months to make Assam a leading telecom circle. The routers will provide better and stable internet protocol (IP)-based services such as broadband, lease line, next generation network and mobile data services.
"Besides, we plan to set up 2,000 additional mobile exchanges (base transceiver stations) across rural and urban areas of Assam during 2016-17. Currently, we have 2,315 exchanges operational," Seth said. Currently, BSNL has a subscriber base of 12,068,00 in the Assam circle.
