Ranchi, Aug. 31: Acute shortage of BSNL CellOne and ExCel mobile connections will soon be over in the state.
Witnessing migration of landline customers to private cellular operators due to upward tariff revision while the public sector mobile phone provider is itself unable to give CellOne and ExCel connections, the Jharkhand circle has now decided to expand the capacity of Ranchi to 35,000 in the coming months.
Ranchi is to soon get an Ericsson mobile exchange of 20,000 capacity, which will also improve the services, sources said. The new equipment is likely to arrive in two months’ time, sources added.
Crippled due to acute shortage of SIM cards, especially pre-paid ones, the BSNL Mobile has also placed order in high quantity to fulfil the soaring demand in the capital and other cities of the state, sources said.
The SIM cards are expected to arrive within a fortnight, sources said. The Jharkhand circle is unable to provide pre-paid connections in many cities due to the shortage of SIM cards despite having capacity, sources said. The public sector company hopes to check the migration to private company after it starts giving CellOne connections, both pre-paid and post-paid, they added.
Sources said about 500 landline customers have surrendered their numbers after the tariff revision in Ranchi alone. The figure across the state is being assessed, sources added.
The surrender has been mainly from the low calling group, which has not benefited from the BSNL alternate packages, sources said. Customers who surrendered their landline numbers have switched to private cell phones where a mobile phone can be maintained with only Rs 250 a month.
As BSNL is unable to provide connections, the users have no option but to look to private operators, sources added.
Jharkhand at present has about 60,000 BSNL mobile connections of which about 15,000 capacity is in Ranchi alone while Jamshedpur accounts for 12,000, Dhanbad, Bokaro, 11,000, Dumka, Deoghar, 8,000, Hazaribagh, Koderma, Tilaiya 11,000 and Daltonganj accounts for about 3,000 connections, officials said.
The capacity crunch is being felt in Ranchi, Jamshedpur and Dhanbad, sources said. Ranchi and Jamshedpur need additional 10,000 capacity each while Dhanbad needs at least 3,000 more in the near future, sources added.
All existing landline subscribers automatically switched over to BSNL Alternate General Package with effect from May 1, 2003, except those, who exercised their option to switch over to the particular package. The alternative general package has the same rental structure as before but lesser number of free calls per month. The number of free calls per month has been slashed from 75 calls to 50 for urban subscribers.
Besides the standard and general packages which have remained almost the same as before but with lesser number of free calls, the BSNL is offering, three types of alternative packages — economy, special and super—for rural and urban subscribers that include monthly rentals.
The variety of alternative concessional packages launched nationwide for telephone subscribers by BSNL has fallen flat in Jharkhand. Hardly five per cent of a total of 4.3 lakh users of the state have so far opted for alternative packages — economy, special and super —aimed specially for the high calling groups.
The alternative concessional packages were launched in May to provide some respite to subscribers following massive slash in free calls and steep increase in tariff for calls from landline to cellular and WiLL phones, sources said.
