New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious ‘Digital India' project got a major fillip after the state –owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has decided to invest Rs 7,000 crore to offer free high – speed wi-fi in 2500 cities and towns in India.
BSNL chairman and managing director Anupam Shrivastava told a leading English daily that the free wi-fi services will begin in the next financial year. But the free services will be only for a limited amount of time.
The users who are having BSNL or MTNL connection will have to shell out nominal amount once the free usage is over. This programme will be similar in line to the model that some private operators give to their users in airports and other public places.
Shrivatava has further said that the most of the metros and tier two cities will get the connection initially. The cities included in the list are Kolkata, Chenna, Lucknow,, Dehradun, Hyderabad, Varanasi, Bhopal, Jaipur, Patna, Indore, Chandigarh and Ludhiana.."
The service will be provided on the latest 4G technology as the company will expand its vast optic fibre network. Nearly 50,000-60,000 wi-fi hot spots will be set up under this programme. The country is on the threshold of data revolution and has a huge potential in the coming years.
State owned BSNL which is facing a severe financial crisis for the last four financial years will look to revive its fortunes. Telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad has already stated that the revival of BSNL and MTNL are among his top precedence.
