BSNL jumps on to the broadband bandwagon
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2004-03-31 •
Mobile service providers are now looking at broadband as the next big business opportunity. While Reliance and the Tatas have already jumped on to the bandwagon, its now the turn for state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to throw its hat in the ring.
In a recent development, BSNL announced the setting up of a national franchisee network to deliver its upcoming suite of broadband services. The franchisees would be appointed on a non-exclusive basis and doing bulk of the investing in the crucial ADSL gear, the telecom hardware that ramps up transmission capability of copper-based wireline networks to support broadband. Worldwide, ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line) hardware is known to inject life into traditional copper networks enabling them to offer the whole broadband brew, be it voice, television, gaming, video or video-telephony. Significantly, the franchisees will be working on BSNL's copper networks in which they would be installing ADSL boxes at specific BSNL exchanges and at broadband subscriber premises.
BSNL's decision to harness a network of private franchisees is meant to rein in broadband-related capital exchange spends, especially since the state-owned telecom company will be splurging more than Rs 5,000 crore on its CellOne GSM venture. Nearly 50 per cent of BSNL's broadband rollout will be handled by a national network of franchisees. The company would also directly invest in its broadband venture. For starters, it has floated multiple global tenders for procuring close to Rs 700 crore of broadband equipment, ranging from routers, to billing and network management systems. What's more, BSNL will also directly invest in ADSL hardware that will be loaded on a modest 5 lakh landlines.
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