Customer-woo schemes and innovative marketing drives have failed: Calcutta Telephones (CalTel) is yet to see a let-up in the steady slide in its basic telephony base.

Despite an impressive growth in the BSNL?s mobile phone services, CalTel has lost around 1,300 units in Base Telephony (B-phone) between April 1 and August 31.

Sources said CalTel had provided more than 60,000 new connections till September. On the flip side, more than 18,000 subscribers had surrendered their connections and around 43,000 links had to be snapped because of non-payment of dues during the period. CalTel?s total B-phone connections now stand at 13.5 lakh.

Over the past six weeks, CalTel had spent around Rs 25 lakh on advertisements and promotional drives to shore up its B-phone business. ?But the slide could not be arrested despite our best efforts,? admitted a senior official.

Though the recent promotional drives fell flat on their face, CalTel?s Rakhi scheme did fairly well, with more than 100 new connections having been registered during the week-long campaign.

The second initiative, B-Fone Free Phone, is doing even better: 2,700 connections were registered till September 20.

Commenting on the overall shrink in the B-phone base, CalTel officials said the trend was ?nothing unusual?. General manager (customer services) S.K. Bhaduri described it as a national phenomenon.

According to him, several factors were responsible for the decline. ?Phenomenal growth in mobile phone connections is one of the main reasons,? he argued

With very little publicity, CalTel?s mobile phone connections have jumped from 26,000 to 180,000 since May 12, the day BSNL launched its pre-paid service Excel.

The growth rate has forced the authorities to put a speed-breaker: new connections are now being cleared once a week. There have also been instances of subscribers surrendering their connections because of financial constraints.

Officials also claimed that the number of defective telephones have gone down significantly, prompting several subscribers with more than one connection to keep just one phone.

However, an internal survey reveals that the efficiency in repairing faulty telephones is still below the standard set by BSNL. According to the standards, a faulty connection should be set right within eight hours.

The public-sector major has also laid down that 87 per cent of all defective telephones in CalTel areas should be repaired on the first day. Reality check: only 70 per cent of such sets are being repaired during the period. The target for the second day is 95 per cent. CalTel?s achievement: 91 per cent.