Jharkhand to dole out 48,000 broadband connections |
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Ranchi: The Jharkhand circle of the Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) has unveiled an ambitious project to popularise its broadband and fixed wired telephones in the state.
Planned as per the suggestion of its consultant, Boston Consultancy Group (BCG), the scheme—Project Udaan—envisages doling out nearly 48,000 new broadband connections in the next 15 months across the state, including the capital city of Ranchi, at the expense of Rs 14.40 crore.
With people’s priorities shifting on mobile services owing to cheaper call rates, the BSNL has put extra focus to promote its unique broadband facility on landline in with an apparent intention to increase its profitability that has almost shrunk to a naught.
During the last fiscal, BSNL corporate office posted a meager profit of nearly Rs 100 crore.
Presently, BSNL has around 48,500 broadband subscribers in the state. Of them, around 18,500 broadband users are in the Ranchi telecom district, followed by 14,000 in the steel city of Jamshedpur.
“We intend to add about 9,000 new connections in the next two months, by the end of this fiscal, in the state through this drive,” the newly posted Chief General Manager (CGM) of the circle DK Sinha said.
The drive, the CGM told the iGovernment, has been planned in two phases—first in Ranchi and then in other telecom districts. The first phase of Project Udaan has been launched last week, while the second phase would be unveiled the next month.
With a view to achieve the target, the circle has set up a team of 15 tech professionals headed by a Deputy General Manager (DGM), CP Singh, to oversee the drive.
About the procedural details of the project, another DGM Arvind Prasad, who is looking after broadband planning in the circle, said the team members would be visiting the doorsteps of prospective customers to apprise them of varied tariff plans and other additional benefits they would get in turn for having a broadband connection.
“The drive has started yielding encouraging results with about 500 new connections booked in the first week only,” Prasad added.
The circle, in fact, has been prompted to launch the project because of its huge success story in other states like Bihar and Karnataka. The drive in those states had benefited the BSNL with broadband connections soaring upto 40 per cent in terms of total wired connections in just six months.
“Moreover, with wiredline connection getting obsolete by the day and intense tariff war in the mobile sector, broadband is an area where we could score significantly for revenue generation,” a DGM said.
On the other hand, BSNL also wants to utilise the fast changing technology to its advantage especially when the state is planning for a big leap towards e-Governance.
“e-Governance is set to play a major role in the state with almost all departments upgrading its delivery mechanism. Hence, it is our (telecom companies’) job to make people familiar with the Internet facilities,” Sinha said.
Ranchi BSNL General Manager Arun Kumar said that members of the project team would interact with customers taking their prior appointments.
“They would also evaluate feasibility of the connection and issue demand notes on a priority basis for new connections,” he added.
http://www.igovernment.in/site/jharkhand-dole-out-48000-broadband-connections-36750