BSNL to Give EDGE in 18 Cities, 64 Villages of Gujarat
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced that it will start providing Enhanced Data Rate for Global Evolution (EDGE) in 18 cities and 64 villages of Gujarat. EDGE, being an extended version of Global Package Radio Service (GPRS), will be offered to BSNL users situated in small towns and villages. The extension is part of BSNL expansion plan in Gujarat for which a budget of Rs. 200 crore has been allocated.
With around nine lakh users in Gujarat circle, BSNL will offer two schemes to subscribe EDGE services. "At Rs 199, the customer will be able to download contents at the rate of 10 paisa per kb and for Rs 399 for unlimited access per month," said Piyush Khare, DGM Mobile.
EDGE technology allows users to download data from internet to mobile handset. He also said BSNL has been offering GPRS for past few months. "So far we have covered 18 cities. Now on, we will offer the GPRS along with EDGE facility in all the new sites which we will set up across the state," said Khare.
However, the services are based on handsets. "Very few models in mobile handsets are available with EDGE facility. But there is a wide range of handsets offering GPRS service," said Khare.
Talking about the contents, Khare said, "GPRS can cater the need of data with speed of 40 kbps while EDGE downloads the data at 256 kbps or above." He further said there are several content providers but BSNL will just provide the service and not the content.
