Convergence India 2010: BSNL crosses 1 mn mark of 3G subscribers

Celebrating this landmark, BSNL is now focusing on promoting WiMax in the country.

BSNL, one of the two 3G service providers in India, has crossed the 1 mn mark as far as number of 3G subscribers are concerned. BSNL has presence across the country, except Mumbai and Delhi, where its counterpart MTNL is providing 3G services.

Speaking on the sidelines of Convergence India 2010, Kuldip Goyal, MD, BSNL said, “We have achieved a new benchmark in terms of 3G subscribers across India. BSNL has crossed the 1 mn mark in terms of the number of subscribers recently.” However, he refrained from commenting when asked what was the number they are targeting in the next one year.

It took almost one year for BSNL to achieve this feat. The company launched 3G services in March 2009 in more than a dozen of cities. The company invested around Rs 27 bn to build infrastructure for its 3G services in India, BSNL promises users high quality voice services along with high speed data transfers. Offering maximum data speed of up to 2Mbps or more, users can also look forward to amazing video services with BSNL's 3G services.

As of now India has a total of around 2 mn 3G subscriber base, out of which most subscribers use 3G services based on the EVDO platform provided by private players.

As India gears up for the much-awaited 3G auction to take place in April 2010, BSNL geared up to spread the WiMax usage across India through their Darpan scheme of rural kiosks, and prepares for further growth in its 3G subscriber base.

Story continues below

It is noteworthy that BSNL has recently rolled out services in Andhra Pradesh and Imphal. Their 3G services include-voice, video and data plans. While voice calls are available at the rate of 30 paise per minute, video calls are available at the current STD/local call rates. BSNL as of now covers around 240 cities under 3G spectrum services.

Meenakshi Rohatgi is Correspondent of Technology Review India edition.