'MTNL Revival Tough But Not Impossible'

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1 'MTNL Revival Tough But Not Impossible' The telecom minister assured help to resurrect the telecom firm The government on Friday said the revival of state-owned MTNL is tough but not impossible even as it assured to provide all possible help to resurrect the loss-making telecom firm. "Revival of MTNL is tough but not impossible. Government will provide all possible support for its revival," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said at a convention organised by MTNL Mazdoor Sangh on the revival of the public-sector firm. The minister also cited the turnaround at another state-run telecom firm BSNL, which posted an operating profit after many years. Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) posted a net loss of Rs crore in third quarter ended December 31, 2015 while its total income during the quarter stood at about Rs.770 crore. The government this month provided a refund ofrs crore to MTNL on account of liability arising out of levy of Minimum Alternate Tax (MAT) towards its financial support.

2 MTNL Mazdoor Sangh handed over a memorandum to the minister over a report of IIM-Bengaluru that examined financial situation of the company and suggested measures for revival. The IIM-Bengaluru report has suggested that MTNL will not be in a position to continue the business beyond one or two years without government support. The report has examined five options for MTNL's revival: raising equity from the market, merger with BSNL, sale of mobile division along with licence and all related assets, surrendering 2G and 3G spectrum to government and the strategic sale by way of transferring 51 per cent or more stake to a private DoT Permits Sharing of Active Telecom Infrastructure

3 The government has allowed sharing of active telecom infrastructure like antenna, feeder cable and transmission systems, a move that will lower costs for telecom operators and lead to faster rollout of networks. Earlier, the telecom companies were allowed to share only passive infrastructure such as towers. The Department of Telecom has amended the Unified Licence to allow active infrastructure sharing. "Sharing of active infrastructure amongst service providers based on the mutual agreements entered amongst them is permitted. Active infrastructure sharing will be limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, radio access network (RAN) and transmission system only," DoT said in a notification. It added the amendment is effective with immediate effect. The government has already allowed sharing of spectrum among telecom operators, which will result in lowering costs and utilisation of excess spectrum. "With sharing of active infrastructure, you don't require your own antenna, feeder cable etc which will bring down the capital infrastructure," BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said. Earlier this week, the DoT said it is set to come out with regulations in 3-4 months that will make it mandatory for mobile phones to support Hindi and at least one regional language. The move is aimed at making users communicate in local languages and access government services like e-payment through mobile phones. "Three months down the line, there will be a regulation that will make every mobile phone sold in India mandatory to have English, Hindi and one regional language," a senior DoT official said. The official said that to make Digital India a success, "broadband cannot be limited to Englishspeaking middle and upper class Indians and it needs to go down to rural areas". Missed the news? Here's a list of all phones launched at MWC 2016 on one handy page - or catch our full Mobile World Congress BSNL's Advice to Consumers: Don't Pay Bills Through Paytm

4 THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: BSNL customers who pay their telephone bills through popular e-payment gateway Paytm, beware! The state-run telcom company has said it will no longer accept such payments and that the phones of such customers may also face disconnection for non-payment of dues. BSNL s decision to not to accept online payments through Paytm has left many customers confused on whether the payments already made would be considered valid. Customers who type online bill payment on search engines get Paytm as one of the top results and they inadvertently use the gateway to pay the telephone bills. BSNL Chief General Manger (Kerala) L Anantharam clarified that the telecom company took the decision to ban payments through Paytm in the wake of widespread complaints from customers. We do not have any agreement with Paytm. The amount paid by customers do not get credited to the BSNL account. Unsuspecting customers, who think they have made the payment realise that it hasn t been successful only when their phones get disconnected after the due date, Anantharam said. Asked when the ban on Paytm payments would come into effect, Anantharam said that it would apply from February 22. However, as a one time goodwill measure, BSNL will re-connect phones which stand disconnected if payment is made through its authorised counters or its portal within the next three days. Customers will have to produce the receipts of payment through Paytm to avail themselves of this facility. According to BSNL officials, there are also complaints about unsuccessful transactions for BSNL prepaid mobile recharge from third party websites. We will look into the matter. Customers can avoid such hassles if they log on to for all online services such as payment of bills or mobile recharge, officials said. Repeated phone calls and an to Paytm went unanswered.

5 Interview with Anupam Shrivastava, CMD, BSNL( ) Tuesday, 23 February 2016 Anupam Shrivastava joined Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) as chairman and managing director at a time when the company was at a financial and operational low. In the past one year, his direction and leadership has helped the company revive its operations. Excerpts from a recent interview... What were the key policy and regulatory developments in the past one year that contributed to sector growth? The biggest positive development during 2015 was the formulation of the merger and acquisition (M&A) policy. The policy has given a new dimension to consolidation in the industry. While the development of the telecom sector in India is cited as a success story, it suffers from low ARPUs and high debt levels. With the announcement of the M&A policy, the sector can now consolidate and progress further. In addition, the government has brought transparency in spectrum auctions. The 2015 auctions have been the smoothest auctions undertaken by the government so far. How have the financials of the sector improved in 2015? For BSNL, was possibly the worst year with operating profits becoming negative for the first time since its inception. In , we could turn around the performance and post operational profits. BSNL spends almost Rs 150 billion on employee costs, which is per cent of its overall expenditure. It is noteworthy that not only do we meet this huge administrative expenditure on our own without any government support, but we are left with sufficient cash to run our operations and maintenance activities and post positive profits. For the industry too, the lowest ebb is over. The year 2015 was very promising and 2016 is expected to consolidate on these promises. What were the major steps taken by BSNL in 2015? What has been their impact? BSNL was incorporated in 2000 and acquired the licence to operate mobile services in 2002, much later than the private operators. During , we expanded at a very fast pace, making BSNL the top mobile as well as fixed line operator in the country. However, during , the company s growth stagnated even as the sector continued to expand. This was mainly because we could not acquire the equipment for our mobile network in time. In 2012, we got our act together once we acquired the required equipment and started plugging the holes in different cities and licensed service areas. This improved BSNL s mobile network and increased our operational revenue by 4.16 per cent in , to Rs 270 billion (the highest in BSNL s operational history). With positive profits, in 2015 we were able to invest in other areas and launch new initiatives during the year. These include the launch of free roaming services, free night-time calls (from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.) and public Wi-Fi services. When we started the free roaming service, we knew that we would lose Rs 1.5 billion-rs 2 billion on an annual basis. However, this strategy was aimed at adding more subscribers to our network and this is exactly what is happening. Up to June 2015, BSNL added 800,000-1,000,000 subscribers per month. And from July 2015 onwards, this figure rose to 1.6 million. In December 2015, it touched 1.75 million and in January 2016, we expect to add about 1.8 million subscribers to our network. Similarly, the free night-time calling had a revenue loss component associated with it. But the strategy was important from the point of view of retaining subscribers in the fixed line segment, which was witnessing a huge churn. To address the challenge of growing competition in the 4G space, we took the public Wi-Fi route. Since we do not have sufficient spectrum to offer 4G, we decided to utilise our fixed line and optical fibre assets to install public Wi-Fi hotspots on a revenue sharing basis. We have already set up 630 Wi-Fi hotspots at 220 locations across the country. In addition, we plan to install 2,500 Wi-Fi hotspots in 250 locations by the end of the financial year.

6 Over the next three years, we plan to install Wi-Fi at 40,000 locations. Going forward, this will be based on both the revenue sharing and capex models. Apart from this, we are planning to launch 4G on the 2500 MHz band based on a revenue sharing model in about 14 licensed service areas. We have already done a soft launch of 4G on this model in Chandigarh. How has the uptake of BSNL s data services been and how does it compare with private players? In 2013, BSNL used to carry about 80 TB of data on a day-to-day basis on its network. Since then, the throughput to our network has increased by 2.5 times to 230 TB. Earlier, data contributed 7-8 per cent to BSNL s revenues in the mobile segment. This has since gone up to per cent and this year, and is likely to go up to per cent. Meanwhile, in the landline segment, the share of data is about 60 per cent. Overall, the contribution of data to the total revenue is around 25 per cent. For private telecom operators, data contributes about 20 per cent of revenues in the mobile segment. What is the update on the merger of BSNL and MTNL? The merger of BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has to happen as the two companies share various synergies in the mobile as well as enterprise spaces. However, three key issues need to be resolved to pave the way for this merger. First, MTNL has a debt of about Rs 160 billion, and so a decision has to be made on how this debt would be managed. Second, the salary structure of employees is different in BSNL and MTNL. Third, MTNL is a listed company while BSNL is not. Currently, a few agencies are providing consultancy to the government on this issue, under which modalities are being worked out to first synergise the operations and then look into the merger. There should be some progress on this front within a year. What progress has BSNL made on the projects it is implementing as part of the Digital India programme? Digital India is aimed at strengthening the country s democratic pillar by providing government services digitally. BSNL is playing a very active role in this programme through the National Optical Fibre Network project, now renamed BharatNet. We have already connected about 35,000 gram panchayats with optical fibre cable (OFC). The government has revamped this project and is looking to engage state governments for its timely completion. By March 2016, overall 50,000 panchayats are targeted to be completed and this will be done by BSNL, RailTel and Power Grid, of which BSNL is definitely going to cross about 40,000 panchayats. Apart from this, our Wi-Fi initiatives will also strengthen the platform for Digital India. Another key project that we have recently completed is the Agartala international gateway, which was aimed at providing connectivity to the northeastern part of the country. Earlier, in June 2015, BSNL had signed an MoU with the Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company wherein from the Cox Bazaar centre in Bangladesh, bandwidth will be supplied to India at Agartala. The entire project, including the laying of OFC, was completed in a record time of six months. It is currently at the testing stage and soon people in the Northeast will start getting internet directly from this particular route. What are the key issues and challenges faced by BSNL? What are your capex plans? One of the key issues faced by BSNL is the expenditure on employees. Earlier, there were discussions on floating a voluntary retirement scheme to curb such expenditure. The plan was later withdrawn as it would have entailed additional costs and already 10,000-12,000 employees are retiring every year. Lately, there has been a lot of activity among the employees and the transformation from the government era to a public sector competition era has happened. Earlier, BSNL was largely seen as a technical department and less emphasis was laid on the service aspect. The employees have now started an initiative called service-with-a-smile, which can help encourage sales and thus revive the company. BSNL s capex plan for the next five years is very ambitious. The company will likely invest about Rs 390 billion, of which expenditure of about Rs 78 billion will be undertaken in However, we will be cautious in investing in new technologies. For instance, the company had earlier invested in Wi-Max, but the technology quickly became obsolete and there were only limited returns on the investment. We have thus started expanding in the Wi-Fi segment through a revenue sharing model. This helps in testing the waters first and observing whether the equipment is working properly and will encourage the uptake of its services.

7 What are the key thrust areas for BSNL? The key thrust areas for BSNL are mobile data, broadband and Wi-Fi. There has been an increased interest in broadband because of several technological innovations that have taken place. For instance, copper can now be used for providing bandwidth of 1 Gbps at a distance of 1 km. This holds importance for BSNL, as it already has an extensive infrastructure on copper. We are now planning to move closer to the consumer in order to provide better bandwidth. Apart from this, BSNL will continue to invest heavily in the core equipment to support all its services. On the wireless side, we have a healthy mix of 2G and 3G sites. Of BSNL s 110,000 base transceiver sites across the country, 70,000-72,000 towers are for 2G and the remaining are for 3G. Thus, the company has not invested in 3G data alone, but has also focused on improving its voice services. In fact, of the Rs 55 billion invested in BSNL s Phase 7 expansion, 60 per cent was earmarked for improving voice infrastructure. What is the company s future strategy and outlook? We believe that cooptition is the key to future growth. BSNL will cooperate, collaborate, and yet compete in the industry. For instance, offering free night-time calls and unlimited and roaming services is part of competition, while sharing of towers and networks to reduce costs and improve service quality comes under cooperation and collaboration. In addition, we are close to finalising a deal under spectrum sharing and trading to improve the provisioning of data More public Wi-Fi hotspots More public Wi-Fi hotspots are expected to come up in Thoothukudi. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is gearing up to install the facility at several locations, including the Collectorate, Thoothukudi Government Medical College Hospital, Regional Transport Office, Rajaji Park and Roche Park, Collector M. Ravikumar said here on Monday. The first-of-its-kind facility in the district was launched by the BSNL at Thoothukudi airport here on February 9 under the Digital India initiative. Speaking to The Hindu, K. Saju George, General Manager, BSNL, said a site survey for creating Wi-Fi hotspots had been launched by Quadgen Wireless Solutions Private Limited. Permission was sought from the district administration, Corporation authorities and Tangedco for installing the facility. Mr. George said smart phone users could access the Wi-Fi facility with one time password. Initially, people could access Wi-Fi free for the first 15 minutes in a month. After the free usage limit, they can avail themselves of the facility at Rs.30 with 200 MB speed for one day, Rs. 50 with 400 MB speed for one day, Rs. 90 with 800 MB speed for one day or at Rs. 150 with 1.5 GB speed for one day by making an online payment. Similar facility would also come up at Kovilpatti. Over 600 customers, who had surrendered the BSNL landline telephone service for various reasons last year, had got their phone service reconnected. Cash back scheme Further, the General Manager said the BSNL had also been promoting new broadband connection under the cash back scheme introduced recently.

8 There is good response to the scheme, which ends on March 31, as Wi-Fi modem is provided along with a new broadband BSNL to Set Up 4 More Wifi Hotspots in City by Feb-end CHENNAI: If things go the way as BSNL officials have planned, the city may get wifi hotspots at four more public places by this month-end and 25 more wifi hotspots by the next month-end. The public sector telecom service provider has taken up aggressively the work of setting up wifi hotspots at public places to compete with private telecom players. We have completed the survey in four areas in the city - Flower Bazaar bus stand, a prominent park near Mylapore, government offices near KK Nagar and the Vandalur Zoo, Chief General Manager of Chennai Telephones BSNL SM Kalavathi told Express. While in these four places the BSNL officials are confident of setting up wifi hotspots by this month-end, surveys are under way in 25 more places across the city. In August last year, the BSNL launched its first wifi hotspot at Mahabalipuram. Users can enjoy the browsing free for first 30 minutes and have to buy coupons to continue. So far, the Central Railway Station and airport are the only public places in the city where wifi hotspots were available. We had a good feedback from Mahabalipuram and replicating it in the city, said Kalavathi. BSNL officials said the new wifi hotspots would cover a radius of 200 metres and the speed would be more than 8 to 10 mbps. While the BSNL is currently targeting only public places which see a large number of footfalls, officials said, from the next financial year onwards, the BSNL would be setting up wifi hot-spots in malls, coffee shops and places where the public movement is more. To a query on the total investment in setting up wi-fi hotspots, Kalavathi refused to provide details. We have tied up with QuadGen Wireless Solutions for setting up and operating wifi hotspots at public places. We will be sharing revenue with them, she added. Meanwhile, those, who have been blaming the BSNL for poor 3G connectivity, have something to feel happy about because the state telecom major is setting up nearly 350 towers to boost 3G connection. Till now we have completed the work in 15 towers. Some of the areas include Wall Tax Road,Pattalam, and Kellys, said Kalavathi.

9 BSNL to provide Broadband Services through Local Cable TV Operators and MSOs on Pan India or Circle or SSA Level State run telecom operator Bahrat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has invited EOI (Expression of Interest) from Local Cable TV Operators (LCOs) and Multi System Operators (MSOs) for providing Broadband Services on Cable TV Network on Pan India or Circle or SSA level of BSNL. As per the latest information, BSNL intends to provide Broadband Services in BSNL s predominantly Non-Feasible (TNF) Areas on chargeable basis using the network of Local Cable TV Operators (LCOs) or Multi System Operators (MSOs). The last mile connectivity of Cable TV operators can be utilized for providing broadband / FTTH in such technically non-feasible areas. TNF (technically non-feasible) areas refers to those areas where BSNL is not able to provide services due to non-availability of resources. It includes those areas where BSNL's cable network is not present or free cable pair is not available to provide new broadband connections. The eligible companies/firms are also required to do marketing, selling and after sale service activities and customer care in coordination with BSNL units. BSNL is the largest Telecom Service provider in India having country wide presence with over 120 million customers and it is the largest ISP and presently offering Broadband services on wire line, fibre and wireless to its customers. The selected LCOs can offer the services in the approved area after signing the service agreement with appropriate BSNL authority as the case may be and as per the terms and conditions entailed in the EOI. BSNL will provide connectivity for Broadband services to the eligible company/firm at tier-2 locations. It is responsibility of eligible company/firm to provide all the connectivity and equipments required at their cost beyond Tier-2 of BSNL to provide Broadband services to subscribers. BSNL will be offering services through LCOs on revenue sharing basis. The revenue share between BSNL and the company/firm for Broadband services will be in the ratio of 65% (for BSNL) and 35% (for company). BSNL shall be responsible for Billing, Invoicing & Revenue collection. Apart from this, LCOs / MSOs can also offer Voice services to the customer and avail the Free Night calling offer. The interested company/firm can submit their application for offering Broadband Services on Cable TV network services either on Pan India or Circle or SSA level of

10 TRAI to bring DTH Portability in India Soon In a move that would be welcomed by most television watchers across the country, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is looking at making set-top boxes (STBs) inter-operable, allowing users to change their DTH or cable TV service provider without changing the digital box. Cable television providers and direct-to-home (DTH) players have expressed doubts about the technical viability of such a system. But Trai feels otherwise. "We are working on introducing inter-operability on set-top boxes. The idea is to make them more like a telecom device," Trai chairman Ram Sewak Sharma told The Times of India. As of now, cable operators and DTH service providers offer their services bundled with a set-top box which comes at a cost of Rs 1,500-2,000. However, if a consumer is not satisfied with his service provider, he is forced to buy a new set-top box from the other operator because of technical issues. Even the amount paid for the box is non-refundable. Trai is framing its views on the issue and the final guidelines will be out within a couple of months, said sources. A consultation paper on draft tariff order, prescribing framework for commercial interoperability of customer premises equipment - set top box - in DTH services was floated in February last year. DTH Portability in India to offers more power to Consumer like mobile operators and can switch DTH operators in case of poor quality of service and access fee on name of various Mobile Growth Shaping Internet Usage in India: Google Mobile growth is shaping internet usage in India. With over 200 million mobile internet users in the country, mobile captured 60 per cent share of all shoppingrelated queries and over 50 per cent share of all travel-related queries, said a study. The study by search giant Google said that for YouTube, over 60 per cent of views are now coming from mobile. In the classifieds space, online job listings saw revival with over 41 per cent job related searches coming from mobile phones. Calling out mobile as the growth engine for the Internet Industry, the report outlines how mass adoption of mobile phones is driving adoption of newer services, becoming the primary screen for consumption of media and defining the new user experiences. "From planning holidays, to decorating homes, to buying groceries, watching their favorite videos online, mobile internet is beginning to influence, and in many cases define, an Indian user's first experience online- and the Industry is taking notice. It is exciting to see, for example, how Search interest for cars is seeing a strong

11 correlation to actual sales. The year 2015 saw whole new categories such as hyperlocal, standardized accommodation getting established as mainstream, while others like digital payments and cab services found a strong foothold-all powered by the internet and mobile," said Rajan Anandan, VP & Managing Director, Google India. With tier-ii cities driving the next wave of growth driven from smartphones, 2015 saw adoption of Internet by older age groups seeking diverse variety of information and embracing new age platforms. Used car searches from non-metros grew rapidly, with three in four searches for used car searches coming from tier 2 cities. Top Google searches with growth rates in 2015 Wearables: 250% 4G devices: 200% Car rentals: 60% Cab services: 86% Carpooling & ridesharing: 173% Online dating: 50% Auto (overall): 40%; used-car queries: 200% Real estate: 40% How-to queries for FMCG products: 100% Hyperlocal Grocery: 55% Budget hotels: 42% Online education: 30% Growth figures are year-on-year Real estate searches from tier 2 cities saw massive growth seeing 100 per cent y-oy growth. In the pre-owned category, searches for used cars formed the largest share with seven in 10 searches coming in for used cars. With growing Internet penetration, the Industry also evolved its offerings to serve the needs of online users. Easy to adopt products introduced by banking and insurance companies saw immediate adoption with one in four users buying auto insurance online. Over 50 per cent of health insurance queries came from mobile phones. Omni channel and multiplatform experience in e-commerce is fast becoming a

12 reality, with online players launching their offline stores and offline retailers extending their presence on the Internet. Telcos also introduced new convenient services aimed to increase customer satisfaction and engagement, with telecom service provider's apps seeing over 170 per cent y-oy growth in search queries, said the study. Business Standard Top telecom companies including Airtel, China Mobile partner for 5G In India, Bharti Airtel has launched 4G service on both the technologies. Reliance Jio Infocomm too has spectrum to deliver 4G services using both these technology but it is yet to launch its services. Aircel and State-run BSNL have launched 4G service on small scale using TD LTE technology. Barcelona, February 25: Leading global telecom operators including China Mobile, Vodafone, Bharti Airtel and SoftBank have joined hands to launch five-year programme GTI 2.0, which aims to advance existing 4G technology and industrialization of 5G technologies. With the support and guidance of 5 Chairman/CEO from top operators, Sunil Bharti Mittal (Founder and Chairman of Bharti Enterprises), Shang Bing (Chairman of China Mobile), Masayoshi Son (Chairman & CEO of SoftBank Group Corp), Chang-Gyu Hwang (Chairman and CEO of KT) and Vittorio Colao (CEO of Vodafone Group Plc), GTI 2.0 was officially launched, Bharti Airtel said in a statement today. GTI 2.0, a five-year strategic plan and mission, aims to continue to promote the global development of existing 4G technologies, TD-LTE and FD-LTE, encourage their convergence and to foster a cross-industry innovative and a synergistic 5G ecosystem. In India, Bharti Airtel has launched 4G service on both the technologies. Reliance Jio Infocomm too has spectrum to deliver 4G services using both these technology but it is yet to launch its services. Aircel and State-run BSNL have launched 4G service on small scale using TD LTE technology. Founded in 2011, GTI is platform of 122 operator members and 103 industrial partners. Industry has completed the GTI 1.0 mission by building an end-to-end TD-LTE ecosystem and achieving global commercialization of TD-LTE as well as converged network which uses both TDD and FDD LTE technology. By the end of December 2015, there were 76 TD-LTE commercial networks in 43 countries, and 91 TD-LTE networks in progress, with a total of 1.4 million TD-LTE base stations serving 470 million subscribers globally, the statement said. We have led the roll-out of TD-LTE in India and are confident that it will emerge as the preferred standard for evolving mobile technologies. We look forward to collaborating with the consortium partners towards developing technology ecosystem for the future, Mittal said. China Mobile, world s largest telecom operator said that it will fully support GTI 2.0 objectives.

13 It is important for the industry to continue developing 4G and to work together to develop the standards for 5G technology ahead of its expected commercial introduction from 2020 onwards, Colao said. BSNL launches 3 new Unlimited Broadband plans at Rs 1891, Rs 2641 and Rs 2645 BSNL is already have three combo unlimited broadband plans atfmc of Rs 2091, 2841 and Rs 2845 but to give more choice to new customers, the PSU today announced three new unlimited broadband plans with almost same feature as the above mentioned plans have, the new plans are not combo plan i.e. customer have to pay FMC of landline connection separately. The new unlimited broadband plans will have FMC at Rs 1891, Rs 2641 and Rs 2645, exactly Rs 200 less from the above mentioned plans. The feature of all these plans are given in below exclusive screen shot. These plans will be available for subscription starting 15 Feb, 2016 in all telecom circle in the BSNL brought promotional offer on Data STVs offering 10% more, Combo 1402 BSNL today announced that the PSU is coming out with a promotional offer for a limited period starting 13 Feb to 31 March, 2016, in which customers can get 10% more data if they buy Data STVs having MRP Rs 70 and more.

14 The PSU have also launched a new combo voucher with MRP of Rs 1402 as a promotional offer on PAN India basis from 13 Feb to 31 March, 2016, with offerings of following feature Usage value worth Rs 1402 in main account 250MB 3G data usage 250 SMS on any net and All national voice call will be But it must also be noted that BSNL is also going to revise feature of some data STVs starting 13 Feb, 2016 as per following exclusive screen shot i.e. the validity as well as free data allowance are going to be reduced. There is also a hike in MRP of data STv 251 and it will now cost Rs 291 from 13 Feb, BSNL have launched a new data STV for use for one day only at Rs 4 (+Rs 3) with offering of 20 BSNL revises WiFi Hot Spot charging method from Duration basis to Volume basis. BSNL introduced WiFi hot spot services starting Varanasi Ghats and now it is available at more than 100 places across the country.

15 Till now wifi prepaid customers are enjoying unlimited download data for a fixed duration as per their plan but now the days are over because BSNL has revised the method of charging from duration basis to volume basis as it does in other GSM or CDMA data services. Henceforth, BSNL customers will get 1.5GB of data though wifi hot spot for a price of Rs 150 with a validity of one day. The minimum data pack is for 200MB for which customers have to pay Rs 30 and they can use it one day. Have a look on the revised wifi hot spot plans as shown in below table. The revised tariff as shown above will be applicable on PAN India basis starting BSNL has planned to set up WiFi hotspots out of which 2500 are to be activated up to 31 March, By::...R.Swaminathan/Div. Engineer BSNL/Nagapattinam nathanbsnl@gmail.com