BSNL to Bring Smartphone Features to Landlines in New Initiative

State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is upgrading telephone exchanges in Rajasthan to make landlines work like smartphones - enabling SMS, chatting and video calls on them, a company official has said. The exchanges are being upgraded with Next Generation Networking (NGN) technology and the work has started in Bundi district. In Bundi and Hindoli, they have been upgraded and remaining would be upgraded within the next few days, telecom district manager (TDM), Bundi B.K Agarwal told PTI.

The special facilities on mobile phone like chatting, messaging (SMS), video calling and personal ring back tone (PRBT) would now be accessible on landline phones, Agarwal said. He added the landline phone would be required to be upgraded with IP phone to avail of these facilities. Besides, he added, customers would now be able to avail of landline services and plans by connecting the number via mobile phone from anywhere.

Calls on landline can now also be received on mobile handsets ensuing they are not missed when one is off-premises, Agarwal said. He added that the 2G towers are also upgraded to combo BTS that would now provide 3G services. 86 mobile towers including 20 in Bundi city are being upgraded and now fast Internet services would be accessible even in rural areas, Agarwal said.

BSNL last week introduced a new broadband offer worth Rs. 1,199. The latest BSNL offer is called BSNL Family Plan and provides mobile Internet data alongside a broadband connection. This Family Plan offers a broadband connection of up to 10Mbps speed and on top of it, user can group three BSNL prepaid connections to get 1GB of data per day for the validity period. Notably, the plan is valid pan-India.

Written with inputs from PTI