In a bid to increase its reach among customers, state-run telecom
operator BSNL will nearly double the number of Customer Service Centres
(CSCs) in the state to 500 in the current financial year.
‘’BSNL currently has 268 Customer Service Centres across Kerala. Under a project called ‘Mission 500’, we plan to increase the number of CSCs to 500. We will also improve our franchisee network and increase the number of retailers, rural distributors and direct selling agents,’’ M S S Rao, Chief General Manager, Kerala Circle, told a news conference here on Thursday.
‘’The Kerala circle contributes 25 per cent of the national revenue of BSNL. In 2012-13 fiscal, we posted a profit of Rs 287 crore which was the highest in the country. The Orissa circle, which came second, made a profit of Rs 36 crore. While Jammu and Kashmir circle came third with a profit of Rs 2 crore, rest of the circles reported losses,’’ Rao said.
BSNL Kerala expects to post a record profit of around Rs 400 crore when the final audited figures of the 2013-14 fiscal are out, Rao said.
Ever since Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was introduced in January 2011, BSNL has added around six lakh new customers.
While around two lakh BSNL customers ported to other networks, close to eight lakh customers have joined the state-run telecom operator in the last three years. The company, which added around 1.5 lakh customers through MNP in the last fiscal itself, stands second in Kerala in terms of market share (26 per cent) in the wireless segment.
However, the state-run telecom company remained non-committal about its plans to roll out 4G mobile services in Kerala. Private operators had already stolen a march over BSNL in launching 4G services which allows data downloads at speeds much higher than 3G.
‘’We have plans (for 4G) but we do not want to commit anything right now as some issues have to be sorted out at the corporate level,’’ Rao said, in response to a query by ‘Express’.
BSNL Kerala will also chalk out schemes to attract pre-paid customers who have been in the network for over five years to shift to the more revenue-generating postpaid segment.
‘’In terms of new connections, the company has added 78,619 land-line, 1.69 lakh broadband, 10.9 lakh cellular, 18,646 WiMax and 50,116 CDMA/ WLL customers in the last fiscal,’’ Rao said. In the ongonig fiscal, BSNL will provide Fibre To The Home (FTTH) services to emerging highrise buildings with high-speed internet up to 100 Megabytes per second (Mbps) along with voice services and extend broadband services to rural areas.
‘’Using NGN technologies, landline and broadband services will be made available to hitherto unfeasible areas. We will also add more 3G mobile towers to cater to the need of increasing number of customers and also to ease congestion,’’ Rao said.
Asked about Wirless In Local Loop (WLL) services using CDMA technology proving to be a damp squib in Kerala, Rao said that the company will take steps to check the high rate of disconnections.
‘’Already, the disconnection rate of WLL phones is coming down and we hope to meet the target of ensuring good quality WLL service in this fiscal itself,’’ he said.
‘’BSNL currently has 268 Customer Service Centres across Kerala. Under a project called ‘Mission 500’, we plan to increase the number of CSCs to 500. We will also improve our franchisee network and increase the number of retailers, rural distributors and direct selling agents,’’ M S S Rao, Chief General Manager, Kerala Circle, told a news conference here on Thursday.
‘’The Kerala circle contributes 25 per cent of the national revenue of BSNL. In 2012-13 fiscal, we posted a profit of Rs 287 crore which was the highest in the country. The Orissa circle, which came second, made a profit of Rs 36 crore. While Jammu and Kashmir circle came third with a profit of Rs 2 crore, rest of the circles reported losses,’’ Rao said.
BSNL Kerala expects to post a record profit of around Rs 400 crore when the final audited figures of the 2013-14 fiscal are out, Rao said.
Ever since Mobile Number Portability (MNP) was introduced in January 2011, BSNL has added around six lakh new customers.
While around two lakh BSNL customers ported to other networks, close to eight lakh customers have joined the state-run telecom operator in the last three years. The company, which added around 1.5 lakh customers through MNP in the last fiscal itself, stands second in Kerala in terms of market share (26 per cent) in the wireless segment.
However, the state-run telecom company remained non-committal about its plans to roll out 4G mobile services in Kerala. Private operators had already stolen a march over BSNL in launching 4G services which allows data downloads at speeds much higher than 3G.
‘’We have plans (for 4G) but we do not want to commit anything right now as some issues have to be sorted out at the corporate level,’’ Rao said, in response to a query by ‘Express’.
BSNL Kerala will also chalk out schemes to attract pre-paid customers who have been in the network for over five years to shift to the more revenue-generating postpaid segment.
‘’In terms of new connections, the company has added 78,619 land-line, 1.69 lakh broadband, 10.9 lakh cellular, 18,646 WiMax and 50,116 CDMA/ WLL customers in the last fiscal,’’ Rao said. In the ongonig fiscal, BSNL will provide Fibre To The Home (FTTH) services to emerging highrise buildings with high-speed internet up to 100 Megabytes per second (Mbps) along with voice services and extend broadband services to rural areas.
‘’Using NGN technologies, landline and broadband services will be made available to hitherto unfeasible areas. We will also add more 3G mobile towers to cater to the need of increasing number of customers and also to ease congestion,’’ Rao said.
Asked about Wirless In Local Loop (WLL) services using CDMA technology proving to be a damp squib in Kerala, Rao said that the company will take steps to check the high rate of disconnections.
‘’Already, the disconnection rate of WLL phones is coming down and we hope to meet the target of ensuring good quality WLL service in this fiscal itself,’’ he said.