BSNL targets to cover 400 Indian cities with 3G by March

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. India’s First 3G telecom operator expects to cover more than 400 cities with its third generation mobile telephony services by end of the current fiscal through March, Currently BSNL has 856,000 users on its 3G network in 318 cities where it offers the high-speed voice and data services, which increases revenue per user. Company plans to complete launching the 3G mobile services in 760 cities by September 2010, as part of the first-phase of its roll-out.

BSNL is one of the two state-run companies, which had been allocated bandwidth for 3G mobile services prior to a proposed bandwidth auction that has been delayed four times since the federal government announced the 3G policy in August 2008. State-run MTNL was allocated bandwidth in the northern Indian city of Delhi and western city of Mumbai.

BSNL launched commercial 3G services on Feb. 22, 2009, in the southern part of the country, ITs now the fourth-largest in the country, currently has 59.5 million mobile phone users