A total of 45 new 3 G towers and 15 new 2 G towers have been allotted to Visakhapatnam Telecom District and a majority of them will be in the city, according to the Principal General Manager of Visakhapatnam Telecom District Nalini Verma.
“The new towers are expected to address the problem of call drops faced by mobile users in some areas of the city. We are also planning to add more towers in the future,” Nalini Verma, who was recently promoted as PGM, told The Hindu .
There are 344 cell 2G towers in Visakhapatnam district, which include 186 in urban and 158 in rural areas, and 250 3G connections, including 169 urban and in 81 rural areas. The total mobile connections of BSNL in the district are around 8 lakh of which 7.42 lakh are prepaid connections.
Wi-Fi facility
“We are planning 50 new wi-fi hot spots in the city this year and 10 of these will be commissioned in the next few months. There are a dozen hot spots in the city in the areas between Ramakrishna Beach and Kailasagiri,” she said.
Gated communities, malls and integrated townships can benefit by subscribing to the wi-fi facility at a low cost.
Limited Fixed Mobile Telephony is an ‘app’ based calling service, provided by BSNL, which allows customers to make or receive voice calls within and outside the network based on static IP either from the customer’s laptop or mobile.
The facility enables customers to use their mobile handset as a landline, within the wi-fi calling area. This enables the customer to also avail of the ‘free night calling’ and other facilities available on BSNL landline. The broadband subscriber would be given an LFMT number and calls can be made to any landline, mobile, VoIP from the BSNL LFMT.
Shyam Bihari Madhopuria of Dabagardens, who is availing of the LFMT facility, is overwhelmed by the advantages of the new facility. “It is very helpful in availing of the offers extended on BSNL landline. It can be used only within the range of the wi-fi modem,” said Mr. Shyam.
