New Delhi, May 8. (PTI): After more than three years, state-run firm MTNL has checked the trend of falling fixed line connections as customers are again subscribing to landline phones to avail value-added services like broadband.

"The trend of surrendering the phones, which started in 2004, has been reversed. Two main initiatives -- broadband and IPTV have helped us retaining customers," Kuldip Singh, MTNL Director (Technical), told PTI.

The company has more than 37 lakh fixed line subscribers in Delhi and Mumbai. So far, about five lakh subscribers have left MTNL's fixed line services as they switched to mobile phones. While some of them took MTNL's mobile connection, others opted for private mobile services.

"Because of broadband, lots of our customers are coming back and IPTV (cable services) would further improve the situation," Singh said, adding MTNL would soon announce convergent billing for all services like fixed line phone, mobile, broadband and IPTV.

Asked if the company was planning to offer a bouquet of services by bundling all services into one for a fixed amount of charges, Singh said: "All such schemes are in the offing."

In Delhi, there has been a net addition of fixed line connections for a couple of months, while in Mumbai it was in the negative zone marginally, Singh said.

The fault rate, which had risen to as high as 25 per cent, was an area of concern for MTNL till some time ago. But it has been brought down to a single digit level and the company is expected to achieve zero per cent fault rate soon.

MTNL has been offering all fixed line telephones, broadband and IPTV (Internet Protocol on TV or cable TV) on a single line and this would be one of the main features to bring its subscribers back into its fold, Singh said.

MTNL is also likely to start partial payment of the bill soon, under which the subscribers would be allowed to make a partial payment upfront and pay the balance in easy installments at a marginal rate of interest, he added.

"With the help of these value-added services, of which some are already on offer and others in the offing, I hope MTNL will once again become the most preferred services both in Delhi and Mumbai," Singh said.

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