The country’s largest telecom operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), will introduce Apple’s iPhone for its subscribers across the country by December along with the launch of the third generation network, according to SK Chakravarty, chief general manager of Calcutta Telephones. “On September 30, we will have a meeting of the circle heads where we may take a decision on making iPhones available to our consumers,” said Chakravarty.
One of the issues that the national BSNL meet will discuss is regarding the roll out of the 3G network by the end of this year.
BSNL and MTNL are the first two government operators to get 3G licence. At present, iPhone is available for Vodaphone and Airtel customers only. “iPhone is a 3G phone and we think that unless we have a 3G network, its full potential can’t be utilised by customers,” said Chakraborty. BSNL is investing around Rs 2,500 crore in creating the 3G network, where the share of east and north is Rs 1,000 crore and that of west and south is approximately Rs 1,500 crore.
Ericsson will roll out the network for east and north, while Alcatel and Huwei will be responsible for west and south, respectively. According to a senior BSNL executive, by the end of this year, all the district headquarters in the country will have the 3G-network connection. “We will work towards this and there should not be any problem to achieve the target,” he said.