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MTNL stems decline in phone surrender rate

Sandeep Joshi

NEW DELHI: The growing use of Internet at homes has helped Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited reduce the rate of surrender of landline phones in the Capital. The State-run telecom company now hopes that its plan to launch Internet Protocol Television (IPTv) via broadband would give a boost to its fixed-line connections that have seen a steep decline in the past few years with people preferring mobile phones over landline connections.

"As against 59,000-odd landline connections surrendered in 2005-06, in the current fiscal (2006-07) the number has come down. In fact, earlier the rate of people surrendering their landline connections was more than the number of new phones we were installing. But now this trend has changed. On an average, we are now providing around 15,000 new landline connections every month, while lesser number of people are now surrendering their phones now," said MTNL (Delhi) Executive Director A.K. Arora.

The MTNL, which today has more than 15.5 lakh landline subscribers in the Capital, is constantly upgrading its technology and strengthening its network to stay ahead in the stiff competition with private telecom operators, Mr. Arora said, adding that earlier people were surrendering their landline phones and opting for mobile connections, but now the MTNL was receiving more applications, even from those who had earlier surrendered their phones.

"One of the main reasons behind this turnaround is the increased use of the Internet, particularly at homes. Our broadband connection is very popular among Internet users as it is not only cheap compared with other services providers but also technologically sound. The number of our broadband connections will touch 2 lakh," informed Mr. Arora. Another scope of increasing landline connections is by introducing IPTv, a system where digital TV service is delivered via broadband connection.

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