BSNL 3G services to be in 760 cities by December (Lead, Superseding earlier story)

NEW DELHI - State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) will expand its third generation (3G) services to 760 cities from the current 674 cities across the country by December this year, Minister of State for Communications Sachin Pilot said Thursday.

BSNL is also expecting to increase its subscriber base in this segment by 2.5 million by March 2011, Gopal Das, BSNL chairman and managing director, said on the sidelines of a telecom event here.

BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd. (MTNL) were awarded 3G license much before the private telcom operators by the government.

In order to give a fillip to its mobile business, BSNL has launched a plan, “pyari jodi”, under which a BSNL landline customer can take a free SIM card and make free local calls to his landline.

In addition, the customer can also call two BSNL local numbers at a reduced rate of 20 paise per minute and one BSNL number anywhere in India at a reduced rate of 20 paise per minute without paying any additional monthly charges.

On activation, the customers will also get a talk time of Rs.15, and a total of 1,000 national SMS and 1,000 MB data free.

“The aim of this promotional scheme is not only to boost mobile business of BSNL, but also arrest steep decline in the landline business,” said Pilot.