AK Sinha

When broadband was available only in small pockets of the

country, BSNL had been mulling over offering the services. It was under the

leadership of AK Sinha that BSNL finally launched DataOne on January 15, 2005.

This resulted in private operators cutting down broadband tariff to match that

of BSNL. Under him, BSNL saw one of the fastest rollouts of its cellular

services, which resulted in BSNL crossing 10 mn cellular subscribers in June

2005.

Before Sinha took over the reins of BSNL in 2004, he was

closely involved in the planning of urban networks on both wired lines and CDMA

WLL systems of the BSNL network throughout the country. Sinha is known for his

initiatives in installation and commissioning of various switching systems in

the network of Calcutta and Delhi. He was also instrumental in commissioning the

first C-400 type Japanese telephone exchange in the network of Calcutta

Telephones and thereafter in MTNL, Delhi.