BSNL upscales IT network of over 18,000 SBI branches

New Delhi, Dec 17 : Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on Saturday said it has upgraded the information technology (IT) network of over 18,000 branches of the State Bank of India (SBI) spread across the country.

According to the public sector company, the upgradation from 64 kbps to 2 mbps -- which is 30 times faster than the existing one -- is helping the bank speed up their entire operation and enabled it for several customer-friendly services.

"We had to do this upgradation of over 18,000 SBI branches spread across the country in 3-4 months and had to carry out without hampering customer services through working all night," NK Mehta, BSNL Director, Enterprises Business, said in a statement.

"Almost 400 bank branches were upgraded simultaneously and integrated into the system on a daily basis as we had a target to complete the entire project in due time," he added.

Mehta further claimed that since the upgradation was completed, the SBI's banking network has had no difficulty in handling the sudden rush of customers.

According to SBI Chairperson Arundhati Bhattacharya, the upgradation is not only helping the bank speed up their entire operation but, at the same time, it has enabled the bank to go in for a number of other customer-friendly services.