Wi-Fi hotspots with high-speed Internet access are now available at convenient public locations in Chandigarh, Amritsar and Patiala, as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is improving the connectivity across the State, says R C Hooda, Chief General Manager, Punjab Circle, BSNL, in an interview with Manish Arora of Elets News Network (ENN)
What are the various services offered by BSNL for Punjab?
In Punjab, BSNL offers all type of telecom services/solutions for all the customer segments. The main services offered are landline, broadband, mobile, FTTH (Fibre to the Home), various value added services, leased line services, Internet leased line. We also provide customised telecom solution as per need for enterprise customers i.e. cloud services, MPLS-VPN, ISDN, EPBAX, Managed IT and hosting services, VSAT . Our data center solutions enable our clients to empower their business by outsourcing their IT operations in a smart and secure way. It helps clients to concentrate on their core business by taking their critical-managed IT solutions management responsibilities.“ BSNL Punjab Circle also provides training to engineering/ management students through the state of the art training centers.
What services does BSNL offer for government organisations?
All telecom services for voice and data are being provided by BSNL to government organizations in a step towards the “Digital India”. We have few important government projects implemented in the government department viz:-
CCTNS Project: For Fast tracking of Crime and the Criminals, online police verication, online FIR, community police service for the benet of general public.
PAWAN Project: Leased line connectivity under Punjab State Wide Area Network (PAWAN) has been provided under this project by BSNL.
E-Court Project: Various district and session courts are interconnected though VPNoBB services which enables online tracking of cases/judgments.
Jail & Court Project: Various courts and their respective jails are interconnected through leased lines which enable proceedings of criminal cases through Video conferencing service without moving criminals out of jails.
NADRS Project: Department of animal husbandry (Punjab Government) accesses the applications through BSNL Broadband connectivity at various civil veterinary dispensaries to update any communicable diseases among cattle’s.
Sarv Shiksha Abhiyan Project: Punjab School Education Board has taken broadband connectivity at about 6000 Govt. High & Senior secondary schools across the state for the benet of students for computer/internet education.
E-district Project: Department of Governance Reforms, Punjab Govt. has taken broadband connectivity at about 1000 offi“ce locations across the state to provide online services like birth & death certicates, SC/ST certicates, Pension & old age pension etc.
E-Governance Projects: Various RTOs/ DTOs are connected through VPNoBB links for issue/online tracking of RCs.
Can you share some of the best practices implemented by BSNL for improving connectivity across Punjab?
BSNL has already planned for replacing the age-old existing telephone exchanges with the latest Next Generation Network (NGN) technology. In Phase-I, 11(eleven) exchanges have been replaced with NGN technology in Chandigarh, Jalandhar and Amritsar telecom districts by migrating 50000 subscribers in the new technology. In addition to this, 55 more telephone exchanges will be replaced shortly with NGN in phase-II having 1, 50,000 subscribers. It is worthwhile to mention here that this new technology has advanced features for the users like Fixed Mobile convergence, All India Centrex, MMVC (Multi Media Video Conferencing) etc. which is the demand of the day.
BSNL Punjab has installed around 150 towers (2G and 3G) to upgrade and enhance coverage of mobile network in FY 2015-16 and installation of additional 200 (2G and 3G) towers is in process & likely to be completed by end of March 2016. During FY 2016-17, BSNL Punjab has planned to provide additional 400 (2G and 3G) towers to improve the mobile coverage which will provide uninterrupted high speed data and voice services to our customers in the urban & rural areas. In the recent survey done by TRAI, BSNL has been ranked among best operators as far as quality of service is concerned. On the wireline front, work of laying of optical bre under NOFN(National Optical Fiber Network presently called BHARATNET) project is going on war footing which will provide Broadband connection to all Gram Panchayats of Punjab. BSNL is also trying hard to lay new copper cable/optical ber cable upto new upcoming complexes/buildings for providing various telecom services.
BSNL Punjab installed around 150 towers (2G and 3G) to upgrade and enhance coverage of mobile network in FY 2015- 16 and installation of additional 200 (2G and 3G) towers is likely to be completed by the end of March this year
BSNL has implemented ERP (Enterprise Resource Planing) to automate the internal processes of organization for effi“cient and smooth operation.
For up-gradation of billing and provisioning system of Landline, Broadband and Leased line network, CDR (Call Detailed Record) based system has already been implemented. is has contributed a lot in provisioning of new services (LL & BB etc.), add-on facility and billing, thereby improving customer satisfaction.
Does BSNL intend to launch any new service in Punjab?
Wi-Fi hot spot services are being introduced for providing high speed Internet access at convenient public locations in Chandigarh, Amritsar and Patiala here under called as Wi-Fi hot spots. Installation of hot spots is under process in these cities.“Hot Spot Type-A is applicable for public utility services like airports, railway stations, universities and their campus etc. Hot spot type-B is applicable for personal type of services like hotels, private owned institutes, colleges, libraries, universities and their campuses etc. All major cities of Punjab Circle including Chandigarh will be provided Wi-Fi services by BSNL under Hot Spot Type-A category.
BSNL has recently so launched 4G services at Chandigarh providing internet speed upto 100 MBPS on mobile devices for testing purpose. At present this service is available to its employees. Customers can experience this fast speed service at Sec.34, CSC Chandigarh. 4G services will be offered to public completion of testing.