Chennai: The long pending national roll out of Bharath Sanchar Nigam Limited's (BSNL) government satellite network (GSN) based cellular services is expected in the next three months, perhaps even earlier, Prithipal Singh, chairman and managing director, BSNL said on June 15.

"The main equipment for the service which would cover at least 1,000 cities including Chennai is presently undergoing trials and evaluation while the process of procuring equipment for various zones are progressing as per schedule," Singh told reporters.

BSNL hoped to provide at least 2.5 lakh mobile connections across the country by the end of this year. BSNL's mobile venture was certain to have a competitive edge, mainly because of its larger reach and infrastructure covering national highways, rail network and villages.

Singh said BSNL was also planning an entry into providing "TV contents" of various channels through its telephone network to customers, adding talks were currently on in this regard with a few content providers.

BSNL would also be making major forays into bandwidth marketing, mainly focusing on corporate houses. It was also planned to launch call centres providing various operation related services in all telephone circles across the country

PTI