BSNL, our government's telecom Jack-of-all-trades, will now be connecting India like never before. Over two phases, the company will set up 19,000 mobile towers to connect the country's villages. There will be wireless broadband to be had too, with about 5,000 blocks of 10 km each covered by BSNL's infrastructure.
In phase one, 8,000 new mobile towers will be erected--this should be up and running by the end of this year. In phase two, the remaining 11,000 towers will come up, though there's no word on when that's supposed to begin. BSNL will also obtain 93 million new GSM lines for the villages connected by these towers.
Clearly, connecting the country seems to be one of the government's priorities, but there's a catch--all this begins only after new wireless spectra are allocated to service providers. Going by the past record of all telecom legislation, this could take a while. Still, this move is what one would call "a step in the right directon." All that's left is for someone to give the country's villagers relief from drought, famine and suicide. After all, we can't let them miss out on all the mobility now, can we?
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