Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has planned investments to the tune of Rs 60 million in 2015-16. These investments in Wi-Fi rollout in key tourism locations; extending mobile coverage in the Left Wing extremism (LWE) affected areas and revamping communications infrastructure in the Andaman & Nicobar Islands. The bulk of these projects will be funded by the Universal Services Obligation Fund.

The company is set to launch Wi-Fi services in prominent locations such as Agra, Varanasi, Hyderabad and Fatehpur Sikri, and shortly finalise the second phase of Wi-Fi rollout zones. Meanwhile, it will soon invite bids from network vendors to roll out mobile networks in uncovered districts of Arunachal Pradesh and Assam, including those near the India-China border. This project will entail an investment of nearly Rs 20 billion. Apart from improving mobile coverage in the Northeast region, BSNL will be revamping the existing satellite gateway in Andaman & Nicobar archipelago and overseeing the rollout of mobile towers there.

BSNL’s another key project, network rollouts in LWE region, is presently being monitored by both the Department of Telecommunications and the home ministry. The Rs 35 billion project is aimed at improving communications and surveillance operations by national security agencies in these regions.

BSNL is also undertaking migration of its old telephone exchanges to next-generation variants, so that its landlines infrastructure can be equipped to carry a mix of voice, data and video signals. The creation of a countrywide NGN communications backbone is in step with BSNL's plans to ring in convergence of its wireless and wireline networks to provide high-speed data services.