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 a 10 per cent increase in new landline connections till November during the current fiscal, compared with the same period last fiscal.

Of the 108,000 new connections given during this period, over 60 per cent of the customers, including domestic, large enterprises and small office home office (SOHO) customers, have opted for the broadband connection. With this, BSNL Bangalore aims to close the fiscal by adding 172,000 new landline connections, compared with 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 the coming 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 had been falling earlier, has really surged,” Subhendu Ghosh, principal general manager of BSNL Bangalore circle told Business Standard.

BSNL Bangalore circle, which comprises six surrounding districts other than Bangalore, is one of the profit making telecom circles for BSNL nationally. In the previous fiscal, the circle recor-ded a revenue of about Rs 80 crore.

Of the close to 800,000 BSNL landline customers the telecom firm has in the city, 225,000 have BSNL broadband connections, which is a penetration of 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 into a broadband connection 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 broadband 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 their broadband accordingly.