Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

BSNL plan to clear waiting list

T. Ramavarman

Of landline connections

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has set an ambitious target of clearing almost the entire waiting list for landline connections in the State by the end of the current financial year.

BSNL (Kerala Circle) chief general manager S.R. Pillai told The Hindu here that the circle had a waiting list of 1.3 lakh landline applicants towards the end of the just-concluded financial year. The figure was the lowest in the past 10-15 years, he said.

The circle had also achieved the rare distinction of crossing 40 lakh landline connections in the past financial year. In fact, 40,25,000 landline connections had been given in the State till March 31 last, Mr. Pillai said.

"This year, we intend to give three lakh landline connections and by the end of the year, all the applicants, barring those from some remote areas, will have got landline connections," he said.

He said of the 40-lakh landline connections given till the last fiscal, 36 lakh were copper line connections, while the remaining were Wireless on Local Loop (WLL) lines. However, of the three lakh connections planned for this year, a lion's share - nearly two lakh connections - would be WLL phones and only one lakh would be copper lines.

Broadband

Mr. Pillai said BSNL was planning to give 1.1 lakh broadband connections in the current year. This would be more than the double the number of the existing 49,000 broadband connections sanctioned by it in the State so far. The new broadband connections would be of higher bandwidth and would be enabled to provide other facilities such as video on-demand and ITTV (Internet protocol television).

He said the equipment for giving these new broadband connections would start arriving by August and a substantial number of the proposed connections would be sanctioned by December.

Mobile connections

Mr. Pillai said BSNL was not in a position to work out a concrete plan of action on the mobile connection front for this year in the State because of the pending court case.

In fact, this was the situation in the whole of the southern region. BSNL had worked out interim connection packages with the suppliers of equipment for mobile connections for other regions. However, such an arrangement had not yet been finalised for the southern region, he said.

Replying to questions, Mr. Pillai said the circle had been able to provide the details of the addresses of all the 19,54,000 subscribers who had taken BSNL mobile connections in the State.

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