Digital India: BSNL To Install 1626 WiFi Hotspots In Southern And Western Telecom Circles Before March 2016

To compete with private players who have already started their 4G services, state run telecom major – Bharat Sachar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has decided to increase Public WiFi services in South and West Zone telecom circles. As per the latest information, BSNL will be installing around 1626 new Public WiFi Access Points across southern and western telecom circles before March 2016.

The PSU will be launching Public WiFi Services in 647 new locations which include – major tourist places, bus stations, public parks, gram panchayat offices, civil stations, educational institutions, universities etc. All these commercially important locations are already identified and are being handed over to M/s Quadgen Wireless Solutions Pvt Ltd.

BSNL WiFi Locations in South Zone Telecom Circles	No of Locations	Total Number of Access Points
Andhra Pradesh	69	153
Chennai	16	46
Kartanaka	79	267
Kerala	68	162
Tamil Nadu	91	203
Toal Number of Locations / Access Points in South Zone	323	831
BSNL WiFi Locations in West Zone Telecom Circles	No of Locations	Total Number of Access Points
Chattisgarh	35	92
Gujarat	60	133
Madhya Pradesh	128	309
Maharashtra	101	261
Toal Number of Locations / Access Points in South Zone	324	795

Till date, BSNL has installed 460 Wi-Fi hotspots in 230 cities and towns
and is planning to install around 2,500 new Wi-Fi hotspots in FY 2015-16. Out of these 2,500 Wi-Fi hotspots, 1626 locations are in South and West Zone telecom circles. BSNL awarded the contract for installing the Public WiFi
Services in South and West Zone telecom circles to US based company M/s
Quadgen.

Read More : How to access BSNL Public WiFi Services? | Procedure to invoke QFI-BSNL Public WiFi Service

In the coming days, BSNL will be concentrating more on Public WiFi services and WiFi Off-load solutions to cater the heavy data demand of wireless subscribers. BSNL WiFi services will compete with 4G services of private plyaers like – Reliance Jio, Airtel, Idea and Vodafone.

See the latest WiFi Hotspot Plans and Offers from BSNL for Retail Customers and Bulk User Customers below:

BSNL WiFi Hotspot Plans for Retail Customers

BSNL WiFi Hotspot Plans for Bulk User Customers

With respect to 4G, BSNL decided to launch Ultra Fast 4G Services in 14 telecom circles. Initial testing (proof of concept) already started in Indore and Lucknow. BSNL has plans to float (Expression of Interest) for 4G services in 25 cities by December, 2015. See its details below:

BSNL to launch Ultra Fast 4G Services in 14 telecom circles, started testing in Indore and Lucknow. Plans to Float EoI for 4g Services in 25 Cities by December 2015

BSNL has also decided to set up 100 Free WiFi Zones in Rural India in association with social networking giant – Facebook. BSNL will be providing the back-haul internet bandwidth for all these 100 locations. So far, nearly 25 villages have been covered under the pilot programme in southern and western India.

Dear readers, please share your views and opinions about this ambitious Public WiFi project of BSNL via comments with us.