State-owned BSNL has started 4G services on non-commercial basis in Chandigarh promising broadband speed of up to 100 megabit per second (Mbps). The company’s local ads are promising broadband speed of up to 100 mbps on its Long Term Evolution (LTE) based 4G mobile service. BSNL has 4G spectrum across India except in Gujarat, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kolkata.

The company selected through request for proposal will manage the networks while BSNL would share its revenue the successful bidder. It has been expanding its footprint on this model wherein it provides only bandwidth and the infrastructure is set up by its partner. Mr. Shrivastava said that company is in discussions with Reliance Jio to offer 4G to its customers using their network. He said that some technical issues regarding inter-operability between two networks is pending that are expected to be sorted out very soon.

 Tidbits 

• BSNL has established 620 wifi hotpsots at present and will be able to complete 2500 wifi hotspots by end of this financial year.
• By end of next fiscal, BSNL is planning to take the total number to 40,000.
• The company after about 4 years of reporting losses, posted an operating profit of Rs. 672 crore for the financial year 2014-15 compared to an operating loss of Rs. 691 crore in the previous fiscal.