Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has launched its reconnection mela in Andhra Pradesh to bring back disconnected landline, broadband and WLL customers.
“Through this recon-nection mela, we want to retain our customers by bringing them back on board,” said Rajeev Agrawal, chief general manager, (AP circle), BSNL. He said around 170,000 customers were disconnected in the state due to non payment of bills and other issues.
The 16-days mela, started on July 28, has so far yielded over 22,000 reconnections, coupled with a recovery outstanding amount of over Rs 1.2 crore, he added. It is being conducted across 700 locations and in all BSNL customer service centres.
The AP circle recorded Rs 2,300 crore revenues for the financial year 2011. Operating loss in the landline segment for the first quarter this year was down to Rs 58.49 crore, from Rs 119.57 crore in the same quarter last year. Whereas, operating profit for the circle during the quarter increased to Rs 97.26 crore (Rs 7.56 crore).
“We are trying to retain our landline customers, add more wireless customers and increase revenues of our enterprise segment,” he said. Under its new initiative, BSNL is approaching various state departments to increase the business of its enterprise segment.
The AP circle has crossed the 10-million customer base, which includes 1.9 million landline, 250,000 WLL and 8.1 million mobile connections. It also leading in the mobile number portability and in the rate of growth in new mobile customers in the country.
“Every month, we are adding around 300,000 new customers, and expect the same growth for the coming year,” he said. It aims to be the second player in the wireless connections from the now fifth.