Nokia Siemens Networks has won a contract from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), India’s largest telecoms service provider, to deploy broadband access across 7,000 Indian villages. The contract is a part of the major green-field rural tender from BSNL.
The new access network’s high bandwidth will allow BSNL to deliver high data and triple play intensive services such as Video on Demand, Video Multicast, IPTV, Video Conferencing and VPN among others to its customers. The network will also enable BSNL to provide connectivity to CSCs (Community Service Centres) and other e-governance locations. The two year agreement includes supply, installation and commissioning , training and the annual maintenance contract for five years. As part of the contract, Nokia Siemens Networks is deploying its Gigabit Ethernet-capable IP DSLAMs Surpass hiX5625 (Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexers) and chassis-based access switch (Surpass hiD6615). Nokia Siemens Networks will also supply end-user devices that will enable BSNL to provide speeds of up to 24Mb/s for ADSL2+ subscribers over its existing copper infrastructure. The first phase of new lines deployment will be completed by Q108.
Kuldeep Goyal, Chairman & Managing Director, BSNL, said that BSNL is suitably poised to usher in the next phase of the telecom revolution in India by delivering high-speed broadband services to the consumer’s doorstep. The BSNL rural broadband project will bridge the digital Divide and connect 20,000 villages in India.
Martin Luest, Head of Broadband Access for NSN, replied by saying that BSNL is…taking world class broadband services to the masses and that NSN is proud to partner with it in its efforts: BSNL will offer its subscribers an outstanding network experience, thanks to faster data transmission over copper telephone lines than a conventional modem can provide. It will also deliver significant cost savings for BSNL through its multi-service capability and high capacity.
This is the second rural broadband access tender that BSNL has awarded NSN. The company is also deploying the urban broadband access for BSNL across 15 circles. First phase of that roll-out is in advance stages of completion for 800,000 ports.
Nokia Siemens Networks provides a comprehensive portfolio for wireline as well as wireless broadband solutions including xDSL, GE and GPON, (Passive Optical Networks), Carrier Ethernet, HSDPA and WiMax.
* BSNL is an Indian-Government-owned corporation with a network of over 60 million subscribers covering 5,000 towns with over 35 million telephone connections. The corporation is an integrated telecoms service provider with presence in the fixed line, cellular mobile, long distance and data segments with over 35 million fixed line, 24 million cellular mobile and 3.9 million Internet subscribers including 0.9 million broadband customers.
