BSNL to Bring WiMax in NCR This Month

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) will start the latest wireless broadband service - WiMax in the NCR this month, said a statement by the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology of the Indian government.

To begin with, the service will be launched from Dhakor of Greater Noida in Uttar Pradesh. This service would be extended to other parts of NCR such as Bisrakh, Dadri, Jewar and Jahangirpuri in next financial year, said Sachin Pilot, minister of state for IT and Communications. This will enable subscribers to access services like video telephony, TV on mobile, video-conferencing, tele-medicine and e-learning.

BSNL and MTNL will set-up 10 new exchanges by the end of this financial year in Noida and Greater Noida. Pilot assured that special steps would be taken to ensure that downtime of towers in these areas is minimized. "With improved quality of service, I am expecting that both companies will add 25,000 new subscribers to their present subscriber base. BSNL at present has 75,000 subscribers and MTNL has 25,000 subscribers in Noida circle," said Pilot.

He also said that over 40,000 mobile subscribers would be added in Noida and Greater Noida areas by March 2011.