Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India’s biggest phone firm by revenues plans to procure additional telecom equipment worth around Rs 400 crore for expanding CDMA  network across 500 towns in India.

At the initial stage BSNL is planning to build a huge capacity for CDMA mobile services but also will focus on providing roaming facility in around 500 towns through its CDMA network. The company’s motive is to compete with private sector rivals like Reliance Communications Ltd (RCom), which serves around 38 million customers through CDMA.

Kuldeep Goyal Chairman and MD of BSNL added that the company is optimistic of using the new CDMA network in those areas where the GSM coverage is nil.