The Hindu Business Line : Roaming rates slashed

There are several loyal, longstanding customers of landlines belonging to MTNL and BSNL. They, however, are not only a neglected lot but always short-changed. Nowadays, complaints from landline users are few and far between. Maintenance personnel and expenses have been reduced. Profitability of these two organisations is now quite high. But few, if any, of these benefits have been passed on to the customers, even partially.

True, those who make long-distance calls have been given some benefits and concessions.

But there has been no concession or benefit for those who mainly make local calls. So that these two organisations not only retain the number of customers but also expand their base, they should adopt the following measures:

Landline rental and local call charges should be reduced, if not abolished. Ideally, individual landline users can be charged a fixed sum. Metering local charges and all the expenses incurred in this connection can be done away with.

Commercial users can be charged on different and graded slabs.

To avoid any loss of revenues for MTNL or BSNL, the following novel way of selling advertisements over the phone can be adopted. As soon as a user lifts the phone to dial a number, a five- or ten-second advertisement automatically comes on before the line is connected.

Enormous potential for advertisement revenue is waiting to be tapped. Benefits are bound to accrue for both the organisations and the consumers.

K. Venkataraman

Mumbai

Letters to the editor and contributions can be sent by e-mail to: bleditor@thehindu.co.in

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