State-owned telecom player Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has
invited bids to set up over 5,000 WiFi hotspots across four zones -
Kerala, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, Kolkata, West Bengal and
Andaman &Nicobar, Assam and North East I and II zones.
BSNL will offer bandwidth while capital expenditure will be borne by
the service providers/partners, according to a senior official from the
company. The contract is expected to be awarded by the end of this
month.
BSNL, over a period of last two years, has set up about 10,000 WiFi
hotspots. It targets to take this number to 1,00,000, including 25,000
in rural areas by 2019.
Under the latest project, the plan is to set up and operate a WiFi
network to provide high-speed broadband services and other telecom
services on a revenue-sharing basis. The project seeks to cover areas
that are not technically feasible and other upcoming areas in urban and
rural areas. The access points, as well as WiFi equipments, will be set
up, owned, operated and managed by the partner who will win the bid.
The telecom public sector unit (PSU) is already providing broadband
services through a WiFi route in circles in the north zone circles, west
zone and south zone (except Kerala) with empanelled partners. It will
offer backhaul bandwidth free of cost till one point at the WiFi access
location depending on the techno-commercial viability.
BSNL chairman and managing director Anupam Shrivastava had earlier
told DNA Money that the company also plans to launch 4G mobile services
in select circles on 2500 megahertz (MHz) with a partner on a
revenue-sharing basis. BSNL will provide only bandwidth to technology
service provider who will manage and operate 4G services.
The company which is reeling under losses has been exploring various
ways to increase its revenues. And one of the major initiatives has
been the tie-up with private players to roll out services which do not
need any capital or operational expenditure by the telecom PSU. With a
high competition in the mobile sector, BSNL has been focusing on its
enterprise business and WiFi services to give a boost to its topline.
In February, BSNL announced that its subscribers with Android or iOS
smartphones would be able to access the 44 million Wi-Fi hotspots in
more than 100 countries including in international flights and rail
systems with the upgraded version of My BSNL app.