BSNL board nod to Rs 60 mn GSM expansion

New Delhi--Facing the stiff competition from MTNL and other private operators, BSNL is on the major thrashold. BSNL is expanding itself in a big way as far as the GSM mobile market is concerned.

In view of the strong demand for mobile telephony, state-run BSNL will add 60 million GSM lines in 2006-07 at an estimated investment of a whopping Rs 20,000 crore.

The PSU has decided to add 7.5 million cellular lines this fiscal to its already 'in the process' roll out of 15 million connections.

The BSNL board has last week approved the plan which is mainly aimed at providing cell phone connections on demand and cutting into the private sector's fiefdom in the same, sources said.

The provision of enhanced lines of 7.5 million has been incorporated in the original tender of 15 million lines floated earlier (four million lines each in South, East and Northern regions and three million in West) with participation from vendors like Nokia (north), Nortel (South and East) and Alcatel (West).

By 2007, this planned addition by BSNL will take the total GSM cellular lines to 82.5 millions in the country.

The BSNL tender, which will also include 3G services, would be floated next month and may cost Rs 20,000-Rs 21,000 if the cost per line is about Rs 3,800.

At least 25 percent of the total new mobile lines would be on 3G, the sources said.