Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has deployed 827 base stations under Rural Phase 1 project and 741 base stations in Urban project using WiMax while MTNL franchise model has failed to attract bidder's interest.
Under Rural Phase1 project BSNL has set up 827 base stations covering 1000 Rural Block HQ of the country. Approximately 10279 number of rural common service centers (CSCs) and 14591 village panchayats have coverage through Rural Project.
The information was provided by Sachin Pilot, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology in a written reply to Rajya Sabha.
He further added that 741 base stations have been deployed under the Urban project provide WiMax services in the urban areas of Kerala, Punjab, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra.
While 348 base stations have been set up in Kerala, 335 base stations have been deployed in Punjab, 25 base stations in Andhra Pradesh and 33 base stations each in Maharashtra and Gujarat with franchises model of revenue sharing.
On the other hand, the other PSU, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), had invited bids for WiMax on revenue sharing model. The bid however, failed to generate interest with Prithvi Info Solutions, a Hyderabad based software firm, as the sole bidder.
The two state owned telecom firms were assigned one block of 20 MHz spectrum for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) in 2008, more than a year ahead of the private telcos.
Government auctioned 2 blocks of spectrum each of 20 MHz, for BWA to private companies in 2010. The auction has been completed and total revenue of Rs. 38543.31 crores has been generated through the auction of BWA spectrum and allotment of BWA spectrum to BSNL and MTNL.
Infotel broadband services won licenses in all the 22 circles, Aircel got seven circle, Tikona won five, Qualcomm and Bharti four each, and Augere emerged winner in one circle.
All successful bidders are required to meet the specified roll-out obligation for BWA spectrum within five years of the effective date.
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