Communications minister Dayanidhi Maran and BSNL chairman and managing director A.K. Sinha (left) in Calcutta on Wednesday. Picture by Kishor Roy Chowdhury

Calcutta, Sept. 7: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) wants to bring its 22.2 lakh dial-up subscribers into the broadband fold.

Calcutta alone has over two lakh dial-up subscribers and 15,900 broadband users.

BSNL chairman and managing director A.K. Sinha said, ?We are actively targeting our dial-up and account-free Internet subscribers to meet our broadband targets. Currently, there are 1.26 lakh broadband subscribers in 160 cities. We plan to extend the service to 40 more locations soon. Also broadband will be available on demand (within two days against the present 7-10 days).?

The telecom major is identifying partners to develop content for triple play, which will make broadband, interactive television and applications like video or audio on-demand available to the subscriber.

?Triple play will be introduced in the next two to three months,? said Sinha. ?We are strengthening the IP-based network to support the applications. Around Rs 500 crore is being invested in upgrading the infrastructure to create an IP backbone on which all future applications will run.?

The company has targeted a base of 10 lakh broadband subscribers this year and aims to double it to 20 lakh next year and raise it to 30 lakh in the third year.

BSNL also feels that broadband will stop the slide in the fixed-line base.

?Last year, despite 36 lakh fixed-line surrenders we managed a net addition of 4.5 lakh users. We expect to maintain the balance this year,? said Sinha. ?We are also focusing on growing the mobile business to offset the static growth in fixed lines.?

BSNL plans to add 40-60 million GSM lines after March 2006, for which it will float a tender worth around Rs 20,000 crore.

?We are preparing to take cellular service to a new level. Thirty-five per cent of the new lines will be 3G,? he added. There are 1.13 crore CellOne subscribers across the country.

Sinha said BSNL plans to add around 23 million new connections every year for the next three years. An annual investment of Rs 22,000 crore has been outlined for the purpose.

?If additional investment is required, we will borrow from the market or generate revenues internally,? he added.

The company also plans to roll out an extensive CDMA wireless network to service the rural areas.

?There is a wait list for 13 lakh phones in the rural areas. By March next year, we expect 95 per cent of this demand to be met,? said the CMD.

As part of its commitment to connect the rural populace, BSNL is also investing Rs 150 crore to create a satellite-based network to reach out to areas that cannot be accessed by wireless networks.

Sinha also said BSNL is expected to register a turnover of around Rs 36,000 crore for 2004-05, up from Rs 34,000 crore in 2003-04.

Net profit is also expected to exceed Rs 6000 crore achieved in 2003-04.