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BSNL Kerala has retained status as the highest profit-making telecom circle in the country by registering 35 per cent growth to ₹658 crore in 2015-16 from ₹486 crore in 2014-15.
Karnataka and Odisha are the other profitable telecom circles, according to R Mani, Chief General Manager, Kerala Circle. Kerala has the highest landline customer base of 20.72 lakh.
New schemes
In order to lure new subscribers, BSNL has introduced the LL 49 Experience plan with a fixed monthly charge of ₹49 for the first six months. After this, it will be converted to a general plan.
There is no installation charge under the scheme, which offers a free prepaid SIM card. It allows free calls for 24 hours on Sundays; but an instrument charge of ₹600 is payable.
Two other promotional plans relate to broadband and FTTH (fibre-to-the-home). Broadband ULD 1091 offers up to 40 GB at 8 Mbps within two km of main secondary switching areas (SSAs) of Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur and Kozhikode and at 1 Mbps beyond.
ULD 1045 under FTTH offers up to 50 GB at 20 Mbps and 1 Mbps as the case may be. Under ULS 1395, up to 75 GB is on offer at 20 Mbps and 1 Mbps in Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Kozhikode and Palakkad SSAs.
Mobile segment
BSNL Kerala will give a major thrust to the broadband and FTTH schemes during this year, Mani said. It has also resumed the scheme for migrating from any private broadband operator.
In the mobile segment, BSNL Kerala is the second largest operator in the State with a customer base of 80.5 lakh (78.2 lakh prepaid and 2.3 lakh postpaid).
It had acquired 6.36 lakh new GSM mobile customers from April till last week this year. An estimated 1.65 lakh have been added during last month alone.
Mani said that a little more than 8.33 lakh have ported in net to BSNL Kerala from others till date through the mobile number portability facility.
4G rollout in March
Rollout of 4G will happen in select cities in March as part of the phase 8 expansion of BSNL at a pan-India level. This will be accompanied by a major expansion in a number of 3G sites in the State.
BSNL Kerala is also planning to replace the old-technology 2G sites (Nortel and Motorola) with new technology equipment (mainly Chinese).
Mani said that BSNL Kerala has been meeting key performance indicator (KPI) parameters set out by telecom regulator TRAI.
Quality of service of 2G/3G mobile network in Thiruvananthapuram has been certified as the best during an independent drive test conducted by a TRAI audit agency. The test covered various locations in the city over a distance of 350 km.
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