BSNL to Set-Up 40,000 Wifi Hotspots With a Better Speeds Than 4G

The CMD of BSNL, Anupam Shrivastava stated that the company at present neither has a 4G service, nor do the relevant spectrum to launch this service. Also to deal with this challenge, they are working on a scheme to set up 40,000 Wi-Fi Hotspots in the country, as he claims it to be faster than 4G services.

Though it is not clear if people not using BSNL telecom services will be able to use that Wifi or not. Also, in November the company tied up with social media giant Facebook to create Wifi hotspots for rural areas and the Zuckerberg owned company will fund them with Rs 5 crore every year to buy the bandwidth from the company.

He further added that under the current scheme 500 Wifi hotspots have already been set and they plan to add 2,500 more in the current financial year.

With an investment of Rs 5,500 crore, the company plans to set up 25,000 mobile towers to improve its telecom service, and also to be on the safer side of the call-drop issue.

When asked about the same he said the call drop issue has been increasing as people have the misconception that the radiation emitted by the towers harm their health and so these towers were removed by the societies/residential areas.

In FY15 the company had generated a operating profit of Rs 672 crore and expects to reach 1,000 crore by the end of this financial year. The company also plans to reach a zenith where net profit position is possible, Mr. Shrivastava stated that it will become a reality by 2019.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)