Chennai: All is not well with the cash-starved Chennai BSNL now on a spree installing mini towers and boosters at over 100 sites to enhance the quality of phone and data connections of its customers.
According to BSNL insiders, telecom officials have started installing outdated mini towers in Chennai and this will drain Rs 2 crore of public money and will serve no purpose, rued BSNL insiders.
The BSNL has procured latest Nokia equipment to enhance the signal connections, but there is a shortage in procurement and there are more points and new sites awaiting latest equipment, but citing interim arrangements the BSNL mobile tower division is installing old and outdated mini towers along with the new ones.
“For a city like Chennai, which maximum mobile penetration, the outdated towers will only benefit contractors and not the customers”, said former telecom advisory member V. Sathiabalan.
BSNL is a public property, but it is forced to suffer at the hands of private telecom operators and technology advancements had been an issue since 2010, he said, suggesting that the outdated mini towers can be installed in rural areas so that only latest upgraded equipment is installed in Chennai BSNL limits.
As on date, there are more than five types of tower equipment utilised by BSNL ranging from Nokia, Motorola, Hawaii, 2G Nortel and Siemens, but whereas private telecom operators only use one kind transmitting high-end equipment to serve customers better, he alleged.Efforts to contact BSNL senior general manager D.M. Bhaskar (mobile towers) went futile.
