Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. launched its 4G service at Chokkankudiyiruppu near Tiruchendur.
S. Krishna Kumar, General Manager, BSNL, Thoothukudi, inaugurated the facility after D. Tamilmani, Chief General Manager, BSNL, Tamil Nadu, dedicated the service through videoconferencing.
Mr. Krishna Kumar said the BSNL was gearing to launch full-scale 4G services in the district and the launch at Chokkankudiyiruppu was a precursor to a new era.
“This indigenously developed 4G technology under the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative of the Government of India for launching the fourth-generation mobile network in India will benefit the customers in a big way. The data capability and quality of the present network is going to be enhanced 4 to 5 times in the coming days,” he said.
The equipment for BSNL’s 4G service had been supplied by Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) with technology backed by the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), a research wing under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and TEJAS Networks, Bengaluru.
“The specialty of this advanced 4G technology is that it has been fully designed and developed in India,” he said.
In the next phase, BSNL’s 4G service will reach Kovilpatti and Kayathar areas before being rolled out across Thoothukudi town and other parts of the district.
“The data speed is expected to outperform our competitors. The noteworthy point of this technological upgrade is that all the hardware supplied for the towers have built-in 5G capability and require just software upgradation. A total of 26 new 4G towers are planned for Thoothukudi Operational Area, which will improve the BSNL mobile coverage in the district,” the GM said.
For the mobile network uptime and other operational parameters, Thoothukudi is one of the best in all-India rankings within BSNL in recent times. After completion of the planned network upgrade and expansion, the user experience and satisfaction of BSNL mobile customers are expected to be far more superior, he said.
BSNL customers can get 4G SIMs from the nearby Customer Service Centres / franchisee offices / mela locations free of cost.