BSNL proposes satellites phones

Eluru: The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) proposed to introduce satellite phones in the country and if centre clears the proposals, it will be launched within six months.

Disclosing this at a media conference here at Vengi Bhavan, BSNL district general manager K Varaprasad said that if the Centre gives nod to the proposals, BSNL will be the first operator to introduce the satellite phones. He added that these satellite phones can be used while travelling in flights also.

For this purpose, he said BSNL has to introduce the 4G wifi hotspots in Eluru and Bhimavaram town in West Godavari district. He said that the satellite phones would be given to Virtual Network Operators (VNO).

He said that the BSNL 4G hotspot centres will be set up in five places, firstly in Eluru and Bhimavaram towns and soon it will be introduced in Chintalapudi, Dwaraka Tirumala, and Koyyalagudem. Through these hotspots, the users may utilise 100 MB data free of cost and if necessary, top-up coupons for the hotspot wi-fi can be purchased online, he added.

Replying to a question, the general manager K Varaprasad said that BSNL had asked the government to sanction the spectrum free of cost to BSNL as it is a public-sector company.

If the centre gives the free spectrum, BSNL will extend 4G services to the users. Replying to another question, the BSNL GM K said that there were 24,600 broadband connections in the district and out of which about 4000 connections got infected due to virus attack to the modems.