Demand for broadband fuels BSNL growth

Despite the global economic slowdown, BSNL Bangalore, the largest telecom circle for the state-owned telecom operator in terms of revenues, has seen 10 per cent increase in the new landline connections till November during the current fiscal, when compared to the same period last fiscal.
Of the 108,000 new connections given during this period, more than 60 per cent of the customers including domestic, large enterprises and small office home office (SOHO) customers have opted for broadband connection.
With this, BSNL Bangalore aims to close the fiscal by adding 172,000 new landline connections, compared to 166,000 new connections, a growth of 3.6 per cent over the fiscal 2007-08.
“The effects of the recession may be felt in future months, but we have not seen any impact so far as the number of new connections has gone up quite fast during the last eight months. Ever since we started selling broadband, our customer base which was going down earlier, has really surged,” Subhendu Ghosh, principal general manager of BSNL Bangalore circle told Business Standard.
BSNL Bangalore circle, which comprises of six surrounding districts other than Bangalore, is one of the profit making telecom circle for BSNL nationally. In the previous fiscal, the circle had recorded a revenue of about Rs 80 crore.
Of the close to 800,000 BSNL landline customers BSNL has in Bangalore, 225,000 are having BSNL broadband connection, which is a penetration of about to 30-35 per cent. “We are redefining landline connections fuelled by the increase in the demand for broadband connections. Our intention is to convert every landline to broadband connections in Bangalore,” added Ghosh.
Among the private telecom players, Airtel is the only service provider which provides wireline-based broadband connection, while most others offer wireless broadband connections. Wireless boradband is however not so affordable, and does not provide the speed of a wireline connection.
“We believe that the demand for wireline broadband will continue to be high until the customers feel comfortable with wireless broadband from affordability point of view,” said Ghosh.
BSNL has already introduced the web-enabled bill payment system across the country. BSNL Bangalore circle is planning to introduce a new online feature wherein customers can periodically view their broadband usage in terms of money, and limit or increase the usage of broadband accordingly.
BSNL Bangalore circle has over 900,000 landline customers. More than 50 per cent of the landline connections in the circle is owned by enterprises including small and medium businesses.