The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) ‘tempting’ scheme – unlimited free calls from its landline at night to any landline or mobile network across India – seems to have helped it regain lost ground in the landline market.
Consequent to the launch of the scheme on May 1, the number of new landline connections had seen a rise, claims the Mysuru Telecom District (MTD), which controls Mysuru and Chamarajnagar districts.
The scheme was available across all the plans, except the Rs. 140 a month plan, and is applicable from 9 p.m. to 7 a.m.
“Last month alone, new landline connections went up by 54 percent,” said T.V. Venkatram, Principal General Manager, Mysuru Telecom District (MTD), Mysuru.
Mr. Venkatram told The Hindu that the MTD had been doing its best to popularise the offer through various mediums.
“It is perhaps for the first time since the inception of BSNL that free unlimited calls have been offered to its landline customers,” he said.
On the continuation of the offer, Mr. Venkatram said, “The offer had come into effect from May 1. It’s a policy matter taken at the highest level and I cannot comment on how long the scheme would be offered.”
Mr. Venkatram admitted that the landline connections had marginally dropped over the years in MTD limits, owing to increase in its mobile connections.
“Landline customers switched over to our mobile connections for convenience and surrendered the landlines. Importantly, the customers have not left the BSNL since they chose its mobile services,” he replied.
In reply to a query, he said there were 70,000-plus BSNL landline connections in both Mysuru and Chamarajnagar districts.
A year ago, MTD had 75,350 connections.
The landline connections in previous years were like this – 86,578 (2011); 87,570 (2012) and 83,791 (2013). Notably, broadband and mobile connections have gone up since 2011.
A representative at the BSNL Tele Shoppe at Saraswathipuram here said, “The response to the scheme is good and new connections went up reasonably. The scheme is available for all phones except for the basic plan. People making STD calls opted for new connections since STD calls were also free between 9 p.m. and 7 a.m.”
