Bangalore still swears by landlines

Bangalore still swears by landlines
By Nandini Chandrashekar, DH News Service, Bangalore:
The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has recorded a five per cent increase in landline applications in the last year and the company is targeting an eight per cent growth in this year...


Landlines might be passe in most cities in the time of the mobile explosion, but Bangalore City has the unique distinction of recording an actual increase in landline use.

The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has recorded a five per cent increase in landline applications in the last year and the company is targeting an eight per cent growth in this year.

The reason: an ever increasing demand for broadband connections in the City.

Principal General Manager, BSNL Bangalore Shubhendu Ghosh says that out of the nine lakh landline customers, two lakh have broadband connections.

“Most customers still want a landline and that is where they prefer a BSNL line over other operators. While there is a good percentage still surrendering their phones, the necessity of having a landline to enable broadband on it is spurring the demand.”

With a target of adding another three lakh landline connections, BSNL officials see no reason why the number of fixed lines should not increase as well. This is in spite of the 3,000-odd connections that are surrendered in a month.

‘Plug & play’ a hit

The company’s other ambitious plan of tying up with residential complexes and gated communities where they are the preferred technology providers has also succeeded. In this plan, BSNL will set up an optical fibre line to the premises of the apartment complex or the building and then use copper wires from that place to the actual location. A small exchange is created within the premises which will offer voice, data and video services. In short, it will meet every telecommunication requirement of the customer.

A person has to just decide on the tariffs on telephone, broadband and IPTV services before using the services. Senior officials were not willing to quote the exact figures about the number of tie-ups they have had for this venture, but they admitted that the idea had been a huge success and they were implementing the plan with full speed.

IPTV services though launched quite some time ago with considerable fanfare has been slow to pick up. At present, BSNL is the only service provider offering this service and the lukewarm response has been attributed to the low number of channels (about 60) and partly due to unwillingness to rely on a broadband connection which could be disrupted frequently.

Wimax plans are also in the offing with BSNL planning to set up about 50 centres. However, if the failure of WiFi hotspots to pick up is any indication, Wimax might take some time to catch on.