In a decision that may appear bold or dodgy, depending on whether you are a telecom manager looking to shore up revenues or a subscriber trying to curb your monthly bills, the pulse rate for calls from BSNL landlines to fixed phones of other operators has been reduced by a full minute.
The new pulse rate for local and STD calls from BSNL landlines to fixed phones or WLL (Wireless in Local Loop) numbers of other service providers is 120 seconds instead of the 180 second cycle. The change, which virtually amounts to a hiking of call tariffs by proxy, has been effected nation-wide with retrospective effect from January 1.
Though the revision appears to be counter-intuitive in the context of the fading patronage for landlines, BSNL officials are confident that there would be a check on revenue outflow in the form of Inter Connection Usage Charges.
Consumer activist T. Sadagopan said users were caught unawares as there was no prior intimation.
Moreover, the pulse rate slash defies logic and would only serve to further dent BSNL’s dwindling landline business, he said.
BSNL’s landline business in the State has indeed been faltering ever since mobile phones started becoming the new normal.
Till 2012, BSNL Chennai Telephones had been registering a net positive growth in the landline segment even when fixed phone surrenders were occurring at an alarming rate in telecom circles across the country.
During 2012-13, the number of surrenders outnumbered new connections - 65,000 surrenders against the 61,000 new connections. In the same period, Chennai Telephones also saw its landline numbers go below the ten lakh mark for the first time.
Fall in subscriber baseNow, the landline subscriber base for the circle has fallen to 8.5 lakh from ten lakh plus in spite of a strong showing in its broadband business.
This was because the new demand for broadband came from existing users while patrons for combo plans (landline-plus-broadband) were negligible.
“While it is true that we are shedding landline subscribers faster than acquiring new ones in recent times, there are definite gains in the pulse rate revision in terms of a revenue outflow for call landing charges,” said G. Vijaya, spokesperson for BSNL Chennai Telephones.
In fact, BSNL had seen a dramatic increase in average revenue per user when it restricted the free call quota on each plan to those within the home network, she said.
