JOIN USSpeaking to mediapersons prior to the launching ceremony of the service, Telecom district Principal General Manager Y C Mishra said the service which was launched in Dakshina Kannada district three months ago has 6,000 customers. The department is expected to provide this service to 5,000 customers in Manipal, he said.
He said the department under 2G mobile service had already commissioned with 216 BTS (towers) in Dakshina Kannada district, while 144 BTS in Udupi district including 33 in Udupi city and eight in Manipal. It is planning to install 104 new BTS in Dakshina Kannada and 102 in Udupi district during 2010-11, he informed.
Under 3G service, the department had commissioned 41 BTS in Dakshina Kannada (8 being under installation), 5 in Udupi district and 3 under installation and 4 in Manipal. During 2010-11, the department has planned to install 200 BTS towers in the undivided district, he said.
Mishra said under National Mission for Education, the HRD ministry has plans to interconnect 400 universities and 20,000 colleges through the network. Under this, all universities in the undivided district will be interconnected through 1000 mbps link.
Though the actual cost for each connection is Rs 10,000 crore per year, the department is providing the facility at Rs 2 crore per year. Of which, the respective Universities will bear 25 per cent of the cost, 75 per cent will be borne by the HRD ministry. All colleges and institutions in the undivided district will be interconnected through 100 mbps link. Entire project had been awarded to BSNL for execution, he informed.
Mishra said the BSNL Broadband services are available in all the 250 telephone exchanges in the Telecom district. Total capacity available for Broadband services was 38,246 in Mangalore and 19,648 in Udupi with working connection of 24,250 in Mangalore and 11,607 in Udupi. Additional capacity planned during 2010-11 was 33,432. As on June 30, the department had provided 35,857 connections, he added.
Answering a query, he said as many as 2.25 lakh customers are covered under landline facility while another 44,000 customers under CDMS connection, he added.
DGM (Finance) Manjunath Holla, DGM (Administration) K M Shetty, in charge DGM Udupi, AGM Marketing Shivaram Hedge and others were present.