The Hindu Business Line : BSNL to invest Rs 170 cr to double subscriber base in Karnataka

BSNL officials told a news conference today that within 12 months of the launch of the mobile services in Karnataka, it has been able to mop up a subscriber base of around 3 lakh. BSNL, which has already invested around Rs 170 crore in the State, plans to invest an equal amount to increase the subscriber base. Revenues from mobile services, since it started operations in October 2002, were around Rs 180 crore.

But the increase in mobile subscriber base has hit the landline subscriber base of BSNL. The Principal General Manager for Bangalore Telecom District, Mr B.R. Baliga said the net addition during the first six months of the current fiscal was around 500 to around 9.74 lakh subscribers in Bangalore.

Mr Baliga said despite the increase in mobile subscriber base, BSNL has been able to hold on to its landline subscriber base. BSNL expects around 15 per cent increase in revenue for the current fiscal. During 2002-03, BSNL posted revenues of around Rs 2,200 crore of which over 50 per cent was contributed by the Bangalore circle.

In another development, BSNL has offered a festival discount for customers opting for leased line Internet access. The scheme is open till October 15. Customers applying for 2Mbps leased line ports will be given additional benefits such as 2 Sancharnet PSTN dial up Internet connections of 1000 hours each or 1 ISDN dial up 128K-backup package of 500 hours.

BSNL has also introduced booking of complaints by dialing 198 for customers in Bangalore rural district. This facility is in addition to the existing service for booking complaints.

Offer for students: BSNL has announced a low mobile rental plan for students in Karnataka. Under the `student power scheme', students will be offered a monthly rental of Rs 99 with a pulse rate of 15 seconds while each SMS will be charged 60 paise.

The new scheme offers all value-added services as per the standard plan of CellOne mobile scheme. The subscribers need not pay any security deposit if they don't want to avail of STD facility.

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