Chennai broadband applicants a disappointed lot

The shortage of broadband equipment has turned out to be a testing time for applicants who have applied for Dataone broadband service with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Hundreds of applicants are on waiting list seeking broadband connectivity in the city, but BSNL authorities could provide the facility to only a few customers in the last two months. The facility has become defunct in several telephone exchanges due to non-availability of equipment.

The BSNL launched its broadband service, Dataone, on January 14, 2005, simultaneously in Chennai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Kolkata and it is available in 34 towns in the State.

Officials silent

Officials, passing on the buck to the higher authorities, refuse to come clear on the issue leaving the harrowed applicants at their wit's end. So much so, the officials were unwilling to even give out the number of broadband connections BSNL has in the State Capital.

Says G.V.R. Subba Rao from Nallakunta: "I have been visiting the BSNL office at Tarnaka for several days now and the stock reply is that there is shortage of equipment. They were not even willing to give a possible date of releasing the connection."

Another customer Prasad of Khairatabad said BSNL should stop issuing advertisements like "Dataone broadband" and "Unlimited broadband and landline connection with zero rental" when it was not equipped to cater to the needs of customers.

A fact conceded by top BSNL officials, of course on conditions of anonymity is: "We are helpless to meet the growing demand from customers.

The situation is the same all over the State.

It takes at least three months to procure the equipment as we have to take approval from the higher authorities for budgetary allocation," an official said.

The BSNL Broadband Service initially consists of high speed Internet (256 kbps and more) and simultaneous phone service on the same telephone line.

Subsequently, other services such as Virtual Private Network, Multicasting, Video Conferencing, Broadcast application etc. will be introduced, officials said.

C-DOT Alcatel to roll out Wi-Max gear

The C-DOT Alcatel Research and Development Centre in Chennai is all set to roll out the world's first consumer premise equipment (CPE) for enabling Wi-Max-based broadband services by April 2007. style=";font-family:Arial;font-size:85%;" >The research centre set up last year to work on Wi-Max technology is planning to roll out 10 million units a year from its manufacturing unit in Chennai.

Mr R. Poornalingam, Chairman, C-DOT Alcatel Research Centre Private Ltd, said: "We are awaiting the spectrum policy of the Government since the components used in the CPE is based on the frequency bands. We hope to launch the product by April 2007. This will be priced at about $100 a unit for the retail users."

Wi-Max is touted to be a fourth generation technology that offers data speeds higher than 3G services. The Government is betting big on this technology to push broadband penetration in rural India. The technology offers low-cost solution as an alternative to copper cables at the last mile.

Mr Poornalingam said that once the product was ready it would look at tying up with another company for marketing.

The CPE is required to catch the radio signals to transmit and receive data on a PC. On the spectrum issue, Mr Poornalingam said that ideally, the Government should allocate 700 Mhz or 2.5 Ghz frequency band for offering Wi-Max services.

The centre has capacity for 1,000 employees. French telecom equipment manufacturer Alcatel owns 51 per cent and the balance is with the Government owned C-DOT.

Taken from Business Line