During the last 12 months, more mobile phone users of other operators embraced BSNL than those who abandoned it in favour of other players.
Statistics made available to The Hindu by the Dakshina Kannada Telecom District — covering Udupi, Chikmagalur and parts of Uttara Kannada — showed that it rather gained from the mobile number portability (MNP) facility. It was apprehended that many would shift to private players after the introduction of number portability.
In the one year ended June 30, 10,843 mobile phone users shifted to BSNL while the number of those who ported out was 6,318 — a net gain of 4,625 customers for the Government-run cellular player.
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In September and October, the number of those porting in was nearly three times more than that of those who ported out with average monthly gain being nearly 700, the statistics showed. In July, the net gain was substantially fewer with just more than 100 customers. BSNL officials said DKTD had given priority to mobile portability with teams formed to follow up the port out requests and to assess the reasons for abandoning it and finding ways to retain customers.
As far as porting in was concerned, the teams would reach customers to get the documents in many cases so that they need not run around, the officials said.
The officials credit this trend to its customer friendly post-paid and prepaid plans both in voice and data categories. “The data usage under post-paid category is just 1 paisa per 10 kb and in prepaid category, 2 paisa per 10 kb. Apart from this, there are many data plans from seven days validity to 90 days validity and customers can choose from a host of plans depending on the need,” the sources said.
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The telecom district had put into service 483 Base Trans-receiver Stations (BTSes) – 422 for 2G and 61 for 3G services – to ensure wide coverage of signal. It has plans to commission 142 more BTSes (118 for 2G and 34 for 3G) in the months to come. “With this, it is expected to improve the service level and our MNP base will get stronger,” a BSNL official said.