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Bharti Telenet sets up three village public telephones

Bharti Telenet has become the first private company to install 'village public telephones' in India.

T O D A Y

• Kerala's IT ambition • Kudos for CDAC • Village public phones • Zenith's merger plans

Three such VPTs have been set up in the Raisen district of Madhya Pradesh to meet Bharti's obligation to provide rural telephony in its telecom circle.

Bharti is a joint venture between Bharti Enterprises and Telecom Italia. It provides basic telecom services in Madhya Pradesh under the AirTel brand name.

The three villages connected by AirTel are Hemari, Guaradiya and Resalpur.

The VPT project comes within nine months of the launch of AirTel in Indore on June 4, 1998.

This is significant in the light of Communications Minister Jagmohan's criticism that the private sector is not meeting its contractual obligations towards rural telephony.

The AirTel service covers Bhopal, Gwalior, Dewas, Pitampur, Mandideep and Malanpur and will soon extended to Raipur and Jabalpur.

Bharti plans to cover the entire state through a 3,000-km-long optic fibre backbone, of which 2,100 km has already been laid.

The company has also commissioned a 700-km backbone network for carrying long-distance telephone calls across Indore, Bhopal and Gwalior.

The VPTs have been installed using CDMA based 'wireless in local loop' technology. The traditional wireline systems have a longer gestation period for return on investment and involve high maintenance costs.

The WLL technology is being used the world over for quick connectivity and quality digital network with capacity for growth.

- Compiled from the Indian media

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