State-run BSNL added 8 lakh new mobile subscribers in almost a month’s time post the launch of free roaming service for its customers in June this year.
“The schemes launched by us are starting to show positive results; particularly with free roaming service a lot of demand has been generated. We closed July with a total of 16 lakh mobile connections. This number was 8 lakh in May. So the subscriber base has doubled post the launch of free roaming in June,” BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Srivastava told The Hindu.
BSNL has been struggling to keep up with the competition from the private sector. However, efforts are now being made for revival of the company, whose losses stood at Rs.7,020 crore in 2013-14. The losses for first six months of 2014-15 (April-September) were Rs.3,786 crore.
He added: “We know one month will not make a difference. But this is a start. If we are able to maintain this steam for next six months, at least till January or February, we will be home. We will be able to at least turn around BSNL’s mobile business.”
He added that in the landline business too, “negativity has almost disappeared. Free night calling scheme is helping. If the trend continues, number of landline connections will turn positive in a month or two.” July was also the first month wherein number of subscribers who left BSNL was less than the number of subscribers who joined the operator using mobile number portability (MNP). “July was the first month when BSNL was port-in positive. BSNL’s port in-port out ratio for all the years MNP has been is 1:5, which means for every three customers who have left BSNL using MNP, two users joined,” he said.
In July, the trend reversed in favour of BSNL. While 1.52 lakh subscribers used mobile number portability to switch to BSNL, 1.20 lakh users ported out, leading to net addition of 30,000 users via MNP.