BSNL has decided to set up 40000 Wi-Fi hotspots across India in order to make up for not being able to provide 4G connectivity. It has so far built nearly 500 sites in the nation under the initiative.
The government-run BSNL does not have the necessary spectrum to launch LTE services and has come up with the new project to counter this inadequacy. According to the telecom operator’s CMD Anupam Shrivastava, Wi-Fi hotspots are faster than 4G speeds. He asserts the brand will increase the number of locations to 2500 by the end of the current financial year.
Shrivastava told PTI that BSNL is planning to set up approximately 25000 mobile towers across the subcontinent to improve its telecom services. The network provider is sinking in over Rs 5500 crore into the enterprise to make this happen. He also revealed that the firm had achieved an operating profit of Rs 672 crore in FY15.
The BSNL CMD expects the number to rise to Rs 1000 crore by the end of the ongoing fiscal year. He went on to detail the company’s future plans, stating that the operator was working on going past the current stage of operating profit to a position of net profit by FY19. It’s launched a number of programs to reach this goal.
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For instance, BSNL had introduced a new mobile calling tariff scheme back in December 2015 which cut rates by up to 80%. It’s targeted only towards new customers and is valid for the first 2 months of subscription. The provider had apparently revamped its infrastructure and started the enterprise in the hopes of getting customers to give it a trial run.