Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) would soon be coming up with new offers for postpaid customers, more attractive than ones being offered by competitors, said R. Mani, Chief General Manager of Karnataka Telecom Circle.
Addressing reporters here on Tuesday prior to a review meeting of the Dharwad Telecom District, Mr. Mani admitted that hitherto most of the offers from BSNL were mainly designed keeping in mind the prepaid customers. “But we are working on new schemes for postpaid customers,” he said.
Mr. Mani admitted that since BSNL was a huge establishment spanning across the country, bureaucratic hurdles had delayed announcement of implementation of new schemes and infrastructure development measures. “Nevertheless, we are offering competitive schemes to customers, which has resulted in incurring only 10% drop in the revenue, while other competitors have recorded losses up to 40%,” he said.
Network quality
Mr. Mani said the quality of mobile services of BSNL was bound to improve in the coming days with installation of 534 4G towers by March 2018. This apart, another 946 3G towers and 747 2G towers would be added by the end of current fiscal with an investment of ₹218 crores, he said.
He said BSNL was still the market leader in providing high-speed internet connections and in providing data services to government agencies and private companies. “BSNL has planned to provide about 20,000 FTTH connections to various government offices, including primary health centres, hotels, government schools and banks,” he said.
To cater to the needs of data hungry customers, 10G capable equipments had been installed in Mysuru, Mangaluru, Belagavi and Hubballi, he said.
Hubballi region
Mr. Mani said there was a data growth of 240% in Hubballi in the last five months and BSNL had plans to add 55 3G towers and 15 4G towers at a cost of ₹9 crores by the end of current fiscal.
General Manager (Sales and Marketing) of Karnataka Circle Vivek Jaiswal said as on date, 108 Wifi hotspots were functioning. Gadag town had the best Wifi coverage in the entire state.
He clarified that there was no plan of shifting BSNL head office in Hubballi and the parking problem would be sorted out soon.
