BSNL fixed line users decline by 3% in Gujarat

State owned telecom company, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), Gujarat Circle, witnessed a fall of three per cent in fixed line subscribers.

As the users in the state are switching from fixed line to mobile, the number of fixed line phones of BSNL has gone down by three per cent within a year.

During the launch of BSNL's new edition of Phone Book for the fixed line subscribers in Ahmedabad, R K Bhatnagar, PGM AM, said, "The book contains around five lakh listings, available in two separate sections "" 'Business section' with Yellow Pages containing over 1,00,000 listings and 'Residential & Rural section' with more than 4,00,000 listings."

"However, the number of subscribers in Ahmedabad has remained same but in the state, it has declined by three per cent," said Bhatnagar.

"But otherwise , BSNL fixed line users and BSNL mobile users together becomes a huge junk," he added.

D K Agrawal, CGM Gujarat Circle said print media has seen an impressive growth in readership instead of internet surfers and CD users.

"In a recent research, it was seen that with multiplicity of choice for various goods and services, Yellow Pages have emerged as the most preferred source of accessing business information," said Agrawal.

The telephone directory is published by BSNL and Indiacom. According to Ashok Mandore, MD Indiacom, the unique feature of the directory is presented in four colour for Information Pages section excluding the Yellow Pages section.

"Other highlights of this year's Phone Book with Indiacom Yellow Pages include attractive layout and presentation in an international format," he said.

Talking about the directory, Mandore, said, "The Indiacom Yellow Pages this year is more comprehensive covering over 20,000 businesses across more than 1100 business categories."

Further he said, the 'Patels' continued to lead with 72,129 entries followed by 'Shahs" in the second position with 39,144 entries, while 'Parmars' with 7,805 entries occupy a place of pride at the third spot in Ahmedabad telephone directory.

Others who have shown some growth this year are the 'Thakkars' with 4,866 entries and 'Solanki' with 4180 entries respectively.

The Ahmedabad Phone Book with Indiacom Yellow Pages is also available on CD and Indiacom portal, an electronic media that enables frequent updating of information giving users access 24 x 7 x 365.

Apart from distribution at BSNL centers, special mobile vans with a dedicated team of delivery executives are also being organised to reach areas with large concentration of customers, he added.

"The Gujarati version of Ahmedabad Phone Book is scheduled for release early next month," said Mandore.