Calcutta: Tring...tring (landline rings).

An elderly homemaker in Jadavpur picks up the receiver to hear an unusual plea. "Madam, BSNL theke bolchi...apnar landphone theke toh call-e hochhe na. Ektu phone-tone korun (Madam, I am calling from BSNL...no calls are made from your landline. You should make a few)."

This is how state-owned BSNL is trying to coax its customers in Calcutta into using their landlines more in the age of mobile telephony.

Sources said quoting a survey by Calcutta Telephones this month that 20,000-odd BSNL landline users across the city and its outskirts have been paying their rentals over the past three billing cycles but have stopped making outgoing calls.

BSNL has decided to call each of these subscribers to encourage greater usage. "We are calling them individually to check whether there is any fault in the line or some other issue," said Shamendra Kujur, general manager of finance at Calcutta Telephones.

Calcutta Telephones has a subscriber base of six lakh-odd landline connections across the city and adjoining Salt Lake, Howrah, Hooghly, North and South 24-Parganas and Nadia.

The survey showed that 30 per cent of dormant connections are inactive because of cable faults. Details of these connections have been shared with the technical team of Calcutta Telephones for immediate rectification, sources said.

The remaining 70 per cent of them are dormant because of voluntary non-usage. "It is true that the convenience of the mobile phone is a challenge to the landline. But we are trying to retain our customers and requesting them to be with us," Kujur said.

A section of subscribers had been unaware about their landlines going "dead" until they were contacted. Some have been away, yet are paying their rentals through the electronic clearance scheme that automatically debits the billed amount from a registered bank account. A few use their landlines only for incoming calls or fax.

"Whatever be the reason for not using landlines, we wanted to make customers aware that we value their money and that if they are paying for a service, they should use it," said another official of Calcutta Telephones.

Metro had reported in October 2016 about the plight of an elderly resident of Hindustan Park who had to wait 176 days before his application to surrender his BSNL landline was processed. In a bid to retain customers, Calcutta Telephones has increased the window for barring outgoing calls to 60 days from 30 days from the date of defaulting on payment.

Do you use a landline? Tell ttmetro@abp.in