Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) plans to add three lakh new mobile customers in the state by the end of the current fiscal. This will take the total mobile subscriber base of the telecom major to 21 lakh by March 2010 from about 18 lakh at present.
As a part of its endeavour to achieve its targeted subscriber base, BSNL plans to add 350 more base transmission stations in different parts of the state by the end of 2009-10.
These would be over and above its existing 1650 base transmission stations.
“We have a mobile subscriber base of about 18 lakh at present and intend to add three lakh more subscribers by March 2010. To provide the infrastructure support, we will be putting up 350 new base transmission stations by the end of the current fiscal”, said A N Rai, chief general manager of BSNL's Orissa circle.
Addressing media persons on the eve of launching the per second billing plan and promotional tariff for 3G prepaid, Rai said, the promotional offer for 3G pre-paid will be valid for two months from November 9 this year. Under the promotional 3G tariff, the voice calls and the video calls in the local network of BSNL will cost 30 paise per minute.
Though the company has a little over 4000 3G customers in the state, the growth has been slow mainly due to high cost of 3G compatible handsets and high tariff. Keeping that in view, the company has brought down the 3G tariff even below the 2G level.
Both the per second billing through introduction of Magic-45, Magic-49 and Magic-97 vouchers and new promotional tariff for 3G prepaid and post-paid customers will help to increase the customers base in the state, he added.
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The company which rolled out the 3G services in March this year in Bhubaneswar and Puri, has expanded its service to 38 towns in the state. Work is in progress for launching the service in towns like Paradeep, Keonjhar, Balasore, Bhadrak, Jajpur, Raygada, Boudh and Phulbani during the current fiscal.
On broadband, Rai said, the company has already set up 800 rural exchanges in addition to the exchanges in the rural areas. The broadband subscriber base in the state is slated to cross the one lakh mark from 75,000 at present by the end of the current fiscal.
However, non-availability of computers is the main constraint for increasing the broad band penetration. BSNL has also started replacing the instrument of the high calling landline customers with caller ID phones.
Rai said, the company is eyeing a revenue of Rs 800 crore during the current fiscal, compared to Rs 730 crore in the previous year. U S Panda, general manager (operations), B Pal, general manager (mobile) and other senior company officials were also present on the occasion.