National telecom major BSNL launched much awaited 4G services in Bengal here today.
“This was basically a technical launch and the commercial services we are expecting to be available anytime within the next 25 days. This was a pioneering effort of our team in Bengal,” said Debashis Sarkar, chief general manager of BSNL’s West Bengal telecom circle. The telecom major accommodates 23.24 lakh wireless subscribers in Bengal, besides 1.77 lakh wired customer bases in the state, currently.
At its Industrial Exchange in Durgapur town, BSNL kicked off technical trial today. “This game changer service is floated utilizing absolutely indigenously developed technology in collaboration with the TCS (Tata Consultancy),” Sarkar claimed. C-Dot Core, a state-run telecom research organization, led the consortium set up for the purpose. The 4G equipment was deployed under the phase IX.2 49 project.
After Centre banned import of equipment and technology from China, BSNL insisted endeavouring on the domestic expertise in the line of Centre’s ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ policy and the newer internet service, in test run has recorded a peak speed of 45 Megabytes, the senior BSNL officials told The Statesman. The company is in process to deploy 1.12 lakh cellular towers to assist the premium spectrum band of 700 Megahertz (Mzh) as well as 2,100 Mzh across the country before commercial roll out of 4G services, sources said. Punjab was the state where the company rolled out 4G services for the first time in the country.
An official informed that through the new move 24,600 uncovered villages will be covered now.