The Hindu Business Line : BSNL Maharashtra clocks 21% growth in subscribers

There was a net decline of 1.3 lakh subscribers from the landline base, which ended the fiscal at 38.04 lakh. The number of mobile base stations grew from 1,000 to 2,000.

Broadband connections numbered 89,360 and total Internet connections 3.63 lakh.

"The circle earned revenues of Rs. 3,600 crore in 2005-06, a figure likely to remain unchanged in 2006-07," Mr Kuldeep Goyal, Chief General Manager of Maharashtra circle, told newspersons.

The higher subscriber base neutralised the fall in revenues that might have resulted from decreasing tariffs, he added.

FISCAL PLANS

Maharashtra's targets for the current fiscal include addition of 14 lakh mobile connections to bring the subscriber base to 36 lakh, and augmenting of base stations to 4,000.

Other services, such as paperless channel top-ups for prepaid services and a `mobile keeper' for storing information contained in handsets in a central server, are on the cards, according to Mr Goyal.

On May 1 BSNL will introduce a closed user group service that will work across mobiles and landlines in the country, he added.

Free calls can be made across the group at a cost of Rs 450 per user per month.

All BSNL services will be made available at the Department of Post offices across the country.

On the broadband front, a 400 per cent subscriber growth is on the cards, the objective being a base of five lakh.

Public call offices will become full-fledged BSNL customer service centres.

Public phones will allow for local one-minute calls and 20-second STD calls at Re 1 each.

The multiplay service, which was introduced as a pilot project in Pune, will be gradually extended to other cities in the State.

The entire State will be provided CDMA coverage for limited mobility during the year, said Mr Goyal.

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