BSNL rolls out Punjab packages

Competition among telecom operators in Punjab has helped the consumer. Government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced reactivating landline connections that had been cut off for long.

And, customers will not have to pay the rental for the period when the phones were dead. The scheme will run for a month from September 20.

The chief general manager of the Punjab circle, G S Bhatia, said the incentive would help to increase the number of customers and revenue of the corporation.

He said there would be no waiver of unpaid bills. BSNL officials are confident of an increase in the number of subscribers because a similar scheme offered last year was effective.

BSNL's Punjab circle is rolling out three tariff packages from today: Plan 250, Plan 499, and Plan 999. Under Plan 250, the customer pays Rs 250 and gets 135 free calls. Beyond 135, the calls will be charged at Rs 1.20 per minute.

Under Plan 499, the subscriber gets to pay plan charges of Rs 499 and make 470 free calls, beyond which charges will be Rs 1.10 per minute. And, under Plan 999, the user can make 1,050 free calls and thereafter each call charge would be Re 1 per minute.

The Punjab circle is bringing on a contest for its pre-paid customers, which will start from today till September 21. There will be a daily draw for selecting 100 winners, who will get prizes worth Rs 300 each.

BSNL is, however, facing stiff competition. Connect, the first private fixed-line service provider in Punjab, is coming up with broadband DSL (digital subscriber line) in the state.

The new package will offer a fixed-line telephone connection, an Internet connection, and a cable television connection at an affordable price. In the DSL system, one can talk and surf together, and hence there is no need for an extra telephone line.

The company has invested Rs 1,300 crore in infrastructure in the past three years and will spend Rs 150 crore more.

Connect has laid about 2,000 kilometres of optical fibre in Punjab as part of its infrastructure expansion. The firm has 2 million fixed-line customers in Punjab, and the number is growing at 5""8 per cent per annum.

Subscribers in Punjab can now save on telephone bills because they will have to pay only for data transfer and not for the entire time logged on to the Internet. The company's revenue was Rs 280 crore and operating profit Rs 80 crore in 2003-04. Connect expects a subscriber base of 250,000 by the end of 2004, and 300,000 by March next year.