Bsnl Boost To Cdma Services

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Source - Times of India epaper

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Kolkata: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has decided to revitalise its beleaguered CDMA service in cities. The state-owned telecom operator will pump Rs 900 crore into the CDMA network with the first tranche of Rs 20.37 crore allotted to Calcutta Telephones (CalTel).

Incidentally, BSNL was the first operator to introduce CDMA in the country under the Tarang brand. The service was rolled out in Kolkata in 2001, years before Reliance Infocomm and Tata Teleservices. However, it failed to consolidate and lost the first mover advantage. Instead, it shifted focus entirely on GSM service CellOne.

“Till now, BSNL was offering CDMA services only in rural areas. Now, we will focus on class A cities and Kolkata will be the first to get the service by December,” Cal-Tel chief general manager S K Chakravarty said on Monday. The Rs 900-crore CDMA investment will be made in two phases: Rs 300 crore in the first to be completed by December, followed by Rs 600 crore next year.

“The CDMA service will be bundled with a fixed wireless terminals for home use, a mobile connection and high speed internet service. The pricing is being worked out,” he said. Once the CDMA infrastructure is in place, Cal-Tel will also launch Evolution-Data Optimised (EV-DO) service. EV-DO is a high-speed broadband connection for CDMA users under 3rd generation (3G) telecom standard.

On Monday, CalTel it launched a high-speed wireless internet service for GSM subscribers that will CellOne subscribers to access the net on a laptop at 1 paise per kilobyte. Two other services — Tricon and Universal Personal Number — were also unveiled. Under Tricon, the company is bundling landline, cellular connection and internet service at rates that will allow 30% savings on the current tariff. UPN will offer an universal number which will allow subscribers to receive or make calls from any BSNL landlines or cellphones at reduced rates.