Landlines get busy signal

1.76 million people still in queue for a connection.

The leap in teledensity means every 12th Indian owns a telephone today but getting a landline connection still requires a wait of up to 12 months.

According to data compiled by the department of telecommunications, the waiting list for fixed lines was 1.76 million at the end of December 2004, a drop of 30,000 from March 2004.

The rise in teledensity to 8.6 in December 2004, as against 4.8 in January 2003, has been on account of subscribers opting for mobile connections. The mobile sector added 36 million users during the last two years, accounting for over 87 per cent of the number of telephones added during this period.

Nearly the entire landline waiting list was accounted for by those seeking connections from Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL).

While the company claimed it provided phones on demand in the bigger cities, BSNL executives said applicants in the rural areas accounted for over 76 per cent of those waiting for connections numbering over 1.35 million applicants.

BSNL has installed over 7 million landlines over the last two years, but net addition during this period was 3.6 million on account of surrenders.

"In principle, we do not have waiting lists for mobile connections, except in circles where there is an acute demand, which again is only for pre-paid. At present, only the Bihar, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu and Kerala circles have a waiting list totalling around 0.80 million," said a BSNL executive.

Information and Communication Minister's Dayanidhi Maran's directive that the total number of phone connections in India be increased to 250 million by 2007, from about 95 million currently, has forced the company to act.

BSNL is undertaking massive expansion plans to achieve a rural tele-density of two per cent by 2005-end and three per cent by 2007, from the current 1.6 per cent. Besides, the PSU has also said that the waiting lists would be cleared by March, 2006.

"We have set a target to clear the waiting list for landlines completely by March 2006," said a senior BSNL executive.

"We are looking at CDMA based fixed wireless services, as this has a greater advantage of last mile reach, to improve rural connectivity. We plan to expand our CDMA base by an additional million this year," he added.

On the waiting list not showing any tangible decline over the last two years, BSNL executives added that the 'demand far outstripped the supply'.

"Though we have provided over 2.6 million landlines between April-December 2004, the demand was so high that the waiting list was down by only 30,000 during this period," BSNL executives said.