BSNL K'taka circle targets 2.5 lakh mobile connections by month-end

Bangalore, Mar 2 (UNI) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Karnataka circle has set a target of providing 2.5 lakh mobile connections by March this year, BSNL Bangalore Telecom District Principal General Manager S Ramalingam said today.

Addressing a press conference here, he said the PSU had invested over Rs 300 crore during 2006-07 to expand its capabilities, including setting up Base Transmission Stations across the State.

BSNL Karnataka had set up over 1,400 such stations to improve its mobile services and one third of them were erected in the city.

Mr Ramalingam said BSNL in Karnataka had a penetration of over ten per cent in terms of broadband connections and to leverage its capacity, over 1,200 new towers were being added.

On land line connections, he said BSNL had lost over 17,000 subscribers this year in the State due to various reasons, including switching over to mobile connections, and several steps have been initiated to retain the land line customers. BSNL was providing measures like free installation charge till March 31 and rent-free second landline for customers whose average bill during the preceding six months stood over Rs 1,500.

The official said BSNL Bangalore was installing more number of small exchanges for reducing hassles in providing new telephone connections and fault-free services. As many as 16 such Remote Subscriber Unit type of exchanges have been installed at various localities during 2006. There was a plan to install six more such units with a total capacity of 10000 lines by the year-end.

UNI