BANGALORE: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to take more fixed line and mobile connections to villages in Karnataka, by providing one connection each to around 1500 villages that have a population of 2000 or more.
 

Whilst approximately 600 villages have already been provided with connections, the rest would be connected by March 2006. CDMA mobile connections would also be taken to more towns, villages and rural areas in the state.

According to BSNL Karnataka circle chief general manager Rama Ganapathi, plans are afoot to increase the CellOne connections to 1.6 million from the present 740,000 approximate connections in the circle. Ganapathi also revealed that tele-density had increased from 4 percent in 1996 to 26.2 percent presently in the urban areas, and from 0.3 percent to 1.74 percent in the rural areas. BSNL is making efforts for phone on demand, though presently there was a wait list of 92,000.
 
 

A proposal has been put forth before the state government to develop a wide area network (WAN) for all their e-governance projects up to the taluk level.

As per media reports, landline, WLL and cellular ISD call rates to SAARC countries, Africa, Australia, Saudi Arabia are set to fall by 33 percent starting Saturday. A 25 per cent cut on leased lines for 2 MB and higher bandwidth connections has also been announced.