Desperate for a Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) mobile phone connection but on the long waiting list of the West Bengal Telecom (WBT)? Calcutta Telephones is here to help you out.
Of the 2.5 lakh-plus applicants on the waiting list for the WBT?s pre-paid (Excel) as well as post-paid services, quite a few have taken connections from CalTel.
The trend developed after the August 15 merger of the WBT and the CalTel, which coincided with the decision to make incoming calls free in the state and Sikkim. The merger, however, has caught the WBT on the wrong foot, with the problem of tower congestion intensifying.
In the WBT area, CellOne was launched more than two years ago and has around three lakh subscribers. A staggering 2.5 lakh applicants are on the waiting list. Many of them have procured SIM cards from CalTel and by using them in the WBT area, are causing network jams in both the CalTel circle as well as outside.
The WBT has 300 base transreceiver stations, against CalTel?s 150. ?We are discussing among ourselves how to overcome the problem of congestion,? a WBT official said.
?More than 30,000 WBT subscribers have obtained their SIM cards from CalTel in the past few months,? an official said on Tuesday. ?They have used local references for getting the connections and we cannot stop them, as it is stated in our rules that any subscriber can obtain a mobile phone link by providing a local base telephone number,? he explained.
According to officials, these ?outside customers? have contributed a lot to the sharp rise in CalTel?s mobile telephone connections.
The subscriber base of BSNL?s CellOne, 26,000 on May 12 when the service was relaunched, is now 2.17 lakh. ?Although we have provided breaks, the figure is rising fast,? an official said.
Over the past three months, CalTel?s mobile service has attracted more than 92,000 subscribers, far more than the combined growth of the city?s private operators.
?The growth is satisfactory, but the rate indicates that we need to pull up our socks,? said a CalTel official.
The main concern seems to be the delay in selecting rooftops for setting up base transmission stations. ?Seventy such stations are waiting to be set up. The delay and the corresponding rise in the number of connections are causing network congestion,? the official added.
New equipment is being installed for the six lakh CalTel connections and the seven lakh WBT ones. Installations of switching equipment, transmission systems and base transmission stations will be taken up soon. Presently, site surveys and other preparatory work are being done.
