Port Blair, July 1: The Chief General Manager of BSNL, A & N Circle, Mr R N Jha who is scheduled to proceed to West Bengal on transfer called on the Lt Governor, Lt Gen A K Singh (Retd), at Raj Niwas on Friday. He apprised the Lt Governor that A & N Telecom Circle has been adjudged the best telecom circle in overall revenue growth and second best in Consumer Mobility (CM) revenue growth in the country among all the territorial circles of BSNL. The Minister of Communication, Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad has presented a certificate of appreciation to A & N BSNL Circle for the outstanding achievement. He also apprised the Lt Governor that last year has seen highest growth in the satellite bandwidth addition to over 1 Gbps as a result of which the quality of mobile services, landline services and broadband services have improved. Remote Islands like Havelock, Campbell Bay and Car Nicobar have been covered with broadband services. The work for rolling out of broadband services in Little Andaman, Kamorta, Long Island and Neil Island are in advanced stage of implementation.
He further informed that BSNL is fully equipped for enhancing the Telecommunication & ICT (Information & Communication Technology) services in the A & N Islands so as to meet the entire requirements which Port Blair as a smart city needs. By the time submarine cable connectivity becomes available, BSNL in co-operation with UT Administration and DoT is likely to hire another 500 Mbps satellite bandwidth connectivity so as to meet the requirements of these Islands in terms of providing connectivity for implementation of various e-governance projects which inter-alias includes implementation of DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer). BSNL has already made a mega augmentation plan of its mobile network in this financial year as a part of extension of Phase VII Project. It is planned to install around 80 new 3G BTSs in and around Port Blair and about 56 new 2G BTSs to cover under served and under covered villages in the remote Islands in this financial year.
The Lt Governor appreciated the performance of A & N BSNL Circle and conveyed his best wishes for his future endeavors.
