390 villages in Telangana, most of them in Adilabad, set to get 4G coverage

26,000 villages across country to be covered in 500 days, says BSNL top official

As many as 26,000 villages across the nation, 390 of them in Telangana, would get direct 4G network connectivity within 500 days, as part of a pan-India programme. The network will be built where no basic facilities are available. About 60% of this will come under Adilabad district.

Setting up each tower would cost about ₹18 lakh as the programme is being taken up in remote areas. However, the exact cost is yet to be ascertained.

Disclosing the details at a press conference here on Wednesday, chief general manager of BSNL Telangana Circle, K.V.N. Rao said maximum efforts are on to improve the transmission network by five times and optical fibre cable would be laid for about 1,400 kilometres at an estimated cost of ₹60 crore. The cost may cross even ₹100 crore depending on the extension. He said they have been extending 4G network on 5G-enabled platforms and hence, it would be easy to handle 4G network.

Mr. Rao added that BSNL is enrolling Telecom Infrastructure Providers (TIPs) for providing fibre to the Home (FTTH) connections by offering up to 50% share and extra sales commission, franchisees in mobile business and system integrators for providing enterprise business solutions with attractive market share. Already, 695 TIPs, 74 franchisees, 20 system integrators, 550 direct selling agents and 11,000 retailers have partnered with BSNL in Telangana.

Answering a question, Mr. Rao said they are monetising on lands while leasing out buildings for 10 years. He said that they are having about 1.5 lakh sq.ft. available with them for leasing out and this year’s target was 35,000 sq.ft., adding that many government organisations are showing interest to lease the space.

Replying to frequent disruption of services due to digging of roads and construction of flyovers, Mr. Rao said they are not being compensated for the loss by GHMC or the State government and it was costing them more. In addition, getting permissions from the State government/ local authorities was also becoming a difficult task..

Mr. Rao handed over the key of a Maruti Swift to Pradeep Kumar, a BSNL customer, for winning half-yearly grand prize.