The Hindu : BSNL geared to face Touchtel challenge

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Apr 06, 2002

Southern States

Southern States - Karnataka-Bangalore

BSNL geared to face Touchtel challenge

By Our Staff Reporter

BANGALORE APRIL 5. The Karnataka Telecom Circle is geared to face the challenge from the private basic telephone service provider, Touchtel of the Bharti Group, which was inaugurated on Thursday.

K. Padmanabhan, Chief General Manager of the circle, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), told presspersons here on Friday that the BSNL staff was prepared to meet the challenge. "If they (Touchtel) announce any new scheme, we can respond with similar offers," Mr. Padmanabhan said.

Pointing out that two more private basic service operators had been permitted to operate in the State, he said the BSNL was redefining its role as a competitor in the level playing field. It was continuously striving to extend "exhilarating" service at competitive tariffs, he remarked. When it was pointed out that the private operators would function round the clock, Mr. Padmanabhan parried the question, and said: "We too receive complaints on Sundays, and attend to them." However, he added that the circle was concentrating on preventing faults, by introducing the technological changes required.

The BSNL was keen to ensure that telephones worked round the clock, he said, and quipped: "When your telephones become fault-free, it means we are working round the clock."

He said all the exchanges in the State would provide telephones on demand within a four-km. radius in one or two months.

The 2,610 telephone exchanges had a capacity to install 32.33 lakh phones, and 25.6 lakh phones had been installed. Telephones were being given on demand in all the important towns, he added. Mr. Padmanabhan said the BSNL would launch a mobile telephone service in August.

Construction of a tower was in progress.

The proposed service would cover the full stretch of the national highways and 120 towns in the State. "You will be truly mobile when we launch it," he said, pointing out the subscribers under private companies could not use the service between towns, at present. The BSNL would launch its mobile service with 1.63 lakh lines, and add 1.5 lakh lines by March 2003 at a total cost of Rs. 150 crore, he added.

Mr. Padmanabhan said the Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) service would improve once four more transmitters were put up.

The work would be completed shortly. WLL services had been introduced in Bangalore Urban, Bangalore Rural, Mysore, Hassan, Kolar, and Tumkur, and these would soon be extended to other cities. He added that all the taluks would be covered this year.

All the district headquarters were provided with Internet nodes connected to the National Internet Backbone, Mr. Padmanabhan said. There were temporary constraints in providing additional dial-up Internet connections due to congestion in the Corporate Billing Service. However, ISDN and leased connections could be provided on demand, according to him.

Mr. Padmanabhan pointed out that the automatic trunk booking through the IVRS system, now functional in Bangalore, had been extended to Mangalore. The concept of teleshoppe had been introduced in Mysore, Hassan, Bellary, Hubli, he said.

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BSNL geared to face Touchtel challenge