Hyderabad: State-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), is launching broadband services, general pocket radio services (GPRS), and multi-media services (MMS) in Andhra Pradesh.

Other initiatives by the PSU telecom include introducing a new scheme for post-paid customers and a new ''India telephone card'' to spur growth in both post-paid and landline segments. Finally, to spur growth, the company is expanding its CellOne capacity in the state with an estimated investment of Rs250 crore.

Addressing the press, Sanjay Kumar, chief general manager, Andhra Pradesh circle, BSNL, said, the new post-paid scheme would have a monthly rental of Rs140, with a 60 seconds pulse rate. The scheme would be available for December 2004 only.

Kumar said that as against the target of attaining four lakh new cell customers this fiscal, BSNL had attained two lakh customers till September 2004, and expects to add the remaining two lakh by the end of March 2005. BSNL''s total cell customer base as of September 2004 was around 800,000, he said. The company intends to introduce GPRS and MMS services shortly to enable its customers to have total communication experience with internet browsing at a much faster speed, he added.

For its broadband services, BSNL plans to commission multi-gigabyte, multi-protocol, broadband convergence infrastructure through the national internet backbone that will provide a maximum speed of up to 8 Mbz. The service will be offered through the same copper cable to provide last-mile connectivity to customers, Kumar said. The service will be introduced in 18 major cities in the state initially, and will be expanded to other cities during 2005 he said.

BSNL has spent Rs20 crore on the broadband project initially and is looking at a customer base of 5,000 by March 2005.

BSNL has also introduced new ''India telephone cards'' with a longer shelf life and validity period, which is tamper proof and available in various denominations for its landline customers.