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Money > Stocks > Market Impact > Report September 30, 2000 |
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BPL plans major push into convergenceNetScribes/Sunil Joshi In the New Economy, convergence is the key word. And BPL is planning a big push in all its allied sectors. Its 100 per cent subsidiary, BPL Innovision -formed to ensure that BPL straddles wireless, Internet, broadband and technology solutions - has a few aces up its sleeve. BPL Innovision plans to set up international satellite gateways in Bombay, Hyderabad and Delhi in the coming months. It will also use the Digital E1 circuits to interlink between metro cities. These two steps will dramatically improve the quality of BPL's cellular services. A recent survey by the Jardine Fleming Research group underlines BPL's cellular prowess. In the Bombay circle, BPL Mobile has 98 per cent coverage, 99.66 per cent speech quality and a call completion rate of 99.69 per cent. BPL also boasts of 13 mobile galleries, 34 dealers and 36 distributors for customer support and sales, across Bombay. BPL's total cellular subscriber base is 429,000, across Bombay, Maharashtra, Kerala and Tamil Nadu circles. Of these, the Bombay and the Maharashtra circles are the most significant because the Bombay-Pune and the Bombay-Nasik routes are the fifth and the seventh largest cellular traffic routes in the state. Another major initiative taken by the BPL group earlier, which has now paid off, is going in for an all-India ISP (Internet service provider) license instead of fixed line licenses. An all-India license ensures a nationwide reach for its Internet services. Besides, its fibre optic backbone will help it reach other remote locations in India. This backbone is currently in the process of completion. It will also offer an ISDN back-up service for dedicated circuits, for 100 per cent uptime. "The BPL Group is on the threshold of achieving leadership in convergence due to its presence in television, telecom, broadband, mobile, paging, wireless, software and now the Internet," says a senior spokesperson for the company.
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