BSNL to provide 24 million mobile connections by March 2006

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) would be setting-up a total
of 24 million mobile lines in India by the end of March 2006, covering South,
West, North and Northeast. Further, BSNL is also in the process of finalizing
the tenders of additional six crore mobile phone lines, soon.

Informing this during the launch of additional 40 lakh GSM lines to Southern
States, here, Union Minister for Communications and IT, Dayanidhi Maran said,
"The Chennai and Tamil Nadu mobile circles would become one and would be
commonly known as Tamil Nadu circle, from October 1, 2005."

The expansion of the additional mobile lines would help reach more 477 towns
in Tamil Nadu, which remained unexplored so far by the mobile operators.

Additional 40 lakh GSM lines would bring in additional capacity of 12.8 lakh
lines in Tamil Nadu (including 4.5 lakh in Chennai); 8.02 lakh in Karnataka; 9.6
lakh in Kerala and 9.6 lakh in Andhra Pradesh. This expansion would additionally
cover 592 towns in Kerala, 343 towns and 70 highways in Karnataka, 470 towns and
231 highways in Tamil Nadu and 345 towns and 222 highways in Andhra Pradesh.

Speaking on the occasion, Karnataka Chief Minister, Dharam Singh said, "BSNL
is the second largest mobile operator in Karnataka with about eight lakh
subscriber base and the additional 8.02 mobile lines would make BSNL the largest
mobile phone service provider of the State."

CYBERMEDIA NEWS