‘Nalanthaanaa,’ a door-to-door campaign by BSNL Tamil Nadu, began from Chief Minister V. Narayanasamy’s residence on Ellaiamman Koil Street in Puducherry on Friday morning.
The BSNL Tamil Nadu has launched this door-to-door campaign in an effort to obtain feedback from customers and redress their grievances on the spot.
The Chief Minister uses a BSNL landline and broadband connection at home apart from holding a BSNL CellOne mobile connection.
On receiving a feedback form from the BSNL staff, the Chief Minister sought to know why there were frequent call drops and broadband network problems in the BSNL connection in his house.
While the BSNL is shortly rolling out a free call forwarding facility from mobile to landline specifically directed at mobile users faced with weak signal issues, on the broadband-related problems, the BSNL staff responded that it might have to do with usage exceeding the prescribed data limit in the opted plan.
In order to resolve the problem, they suggested that the Chief Minister opt for a high-speed optic fibre connection in addition to the existing copper cable connection for faster internet and better network service. According to a BSNL official, the Chief Minister evinced interest in subscribing to optic fibre-driven services. The Chief Minister also told the staff to not make a white elephant out of BSNL and try to bring profit through their service. He asked them to address the complaints from the public at the earliest and improve the service.
N. Poonguzhali, Chief General Manager, BSNL Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle, told the Chief Minister that ‘Nalanthaanaa’ was an initiative to connect directly to the customers in order to hear their complaints. “We are going to the customers to resolve their complaints. This will improve our service through out Tamil Nadu. We are hopeful that this effort will be fruitful,” she said.
Leelashankari, Senior General Manager, BSNL, overseeing Puducherry and Cuddalore, said that there were about 55,000 landline connections, 26,500 broadband connection and 1,60,000 mobile phone users in Puducherry. The BSNL service is delivered through 22 telephone exchanges.
This campaign will cover all residential and commercial users within a 1.5 km radius of the respective telephone exchanges in the first phase. BSNL plans to cover its entre subscriber base in about three months.
A BSNL team comprising the Divisional Engineer, the SDE, JTO and lineman will survey outdoor cables and the wiring within customer premises as well collect feedback on the quality of service and rectify problems.
The team later visited the Raj Nivas on Friday afternoon and met Lieutenant Governor Kiran Bedi.
A BSNL official said that the Lieutenant Governor was happy with the BSNL service. “She welcomed us and took pictures with the staff, wearing the ‘Nalanthaanaa’ cap,” said the official. The Lt. Governor has two BSNL optic fibre connections and she uses the service for conferencing.
