BSNL plans Net connectivity in rural Bihar

How many times have you felt frustrated for not being able to have high-speed broadband internet connectivity while moving in the hinterlands of Bihar? May be many times, for most of the rural Bihar is still to have a feel of this new-age technology.

Things, however, are in a for a change as the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has come up with an ambitious plan to provide glitch-free broadband internet connectivity in the rural areas of Bihar.

To reduce the gestation period, the Nigam has decided to use Wi-Max technology, which would allow it to provide wireless internet connectivity.

The BSNL will fit special antenna on the existing mobile towers to provide this facility. Each antenna would provide broadband internet connectivity in a radius of 10 km.

"Around 40 such antennas would be available with us by the end of this month and the same number of blocks would be provided with broadband internet facility by the end of June this year," Manish Kumar, BSNL deputy general manager (broadband), told.

Kumar said the long-term target is to fit 600 such antennas in different parts of rural Bihar by the end of fiscal year 2010-11 so that most of the rural areas could have the broadband facility.

Incidentally, the upcoming facility would be a boon not only for common man but also for the state government. The common service centres (CSCs), being set up in rural Bihar for delivering B2C (Business to citizen) and G2C (Government to citizen) services by the government would be able to function more efficiently with broadband internet connection.

Meanwhile, broadband users in urban centres of Bihar too would soon have the option of getting the same internet speed which is available to leased lines.

BSNL would soon offer Symmetric Digital Subscriber Line (SDSL) modems to its existing as well as new broadband subscribers. The existing Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line (ADSL) does not offer a very good speed as far as uploading is concerned. SDSL modems does not have this drawback. There is, however, a big difference in the prices of these two variants of modem. While an ADSL modem costs around Rs 2,000 a piece, the SDSL modem carries a price tag of around Rs 1 lakh.

"It is for the users to decide which modem do they want... BSNL is just going to give an option to them," said a Nigam official.link