Over 2,000 cellular towers will be erected in the State as part of the BSNL expansion programme with a capital expenditure of Rs.600 crore in this financial year, BSNL Andhra Pradesh Chief General Manager V. Srinivasan has said.
Addressing a press conference here on Friday, Mr. Srinivasan said, between 600 and 700 towers would be erected in the State Capital and the surrounding areas as part of the project.
“Currently, the BSNL is ranked third in the market share after Airtel and Idea in Andhra Pradesh. An effort will be made to go ahead of Idea, as there is very little difference between BSNL and that company,” he said.
At the current rate of growth, BSNL would be able to surpass Airtel too, making it the “dominant” service provider in the State in “two or three years,” Mr. Srinivasan said.
Revenue earnings
BSNL Andhra Pradesh Circle was ranked 5th or 6th in the corporation having a revenue earning of Rs. 2,300 crore in 2011-12. Though the Andhra Pradesh Circle ranked number one in revenue earning, the other performance indicators such as profitability, enterprise business, consumer fixed access (CFA), and consumer mobility (CM) services on the score board were pulling down the ranking of the circle, he said.
The circle suffered a loss of Rs. 650 crore last year. A 25 per cent growth rate (Rs. 3,000 crore) was needed for the circle to move to the top rank. In the past three months, a revenue growth of 10 per cent could be achieved compared to the 3.7 per cent of the previous year. And efforts would be made to sustain the revenue growth till the end of the financial year.
He said BSNL was providing mobile services to nine million customers, a majority (8.7 million) of them were pre-paid account holders. Mr. Srinivasan said it had set for itself a target of reaching out to 10 million customers by the end of the financial year.
Krishna Telecom District GM John Chrisostham was present.
