The Madhya Pradesh Telecom Circle (MPTC) of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL)
is focusing its efforts to woo subscribers through value-added services, yet
there is a need to improve the quality of a large proportion of its services
like phone directory inquiry and fault repair, to name but a few, said NL Sahi,
Chief GM, MPTC.
Explaining about the slew of services being offered by MPTC, which BSNL is
planning to launch to add more value to its fixed line phone services, Sahi said
that BSNL was going to launch its first Direct Internet Access Service (DIAS) in
the city of Bhopal very soon, where a customer will have round-the-clock access
to the Internet services.
Similarly, voice mail services, which have already been launched in Indore
last month, will be available in Bhopal within the next three months. While its
mobile phone, services will be available by the month of August in MP.
“We will launch our services in MP in two phases: the first phase will
cover 30 cities or 69,500 lines, while the second phase will cover 14 cities or
34,500 lines, and hence we will provide cell phone services in 53 cities or one
lakh lines,” he added.
Sahi said that BSNL has achieved the target of rural telephony and has
installed Village Public Telephones (VPTs) in 37597 villages, The private
telephony services operators have to install VPT’s in the rest of these
villages. “We have replaced most of the phones working on MARR (Multi Axle
Radio Relay) technology with WiLL technology in rural areas,” said Sahi.
BSNL has also waived off the rental for the duration between May 17, 2002 and
June 15, 2002 if a subscriber's phone remained disconnected, provided that he
has made a fresh application to get it reconnected. Similar discounts and
waivers were also available on installation of phones only for subscribers of
Bhopal.
Cellular services in MP soon In his welcome speech, NL Sahi, Chief GM said
that the much-awaited cellular services of BSNL will start from July 2002 or
August 2002. He said that 4,912 rural exchanges have begun their operations with
Wireless in Local Loop (WiLL) technology. These telephone connections are being
provided to rural customers along with much better customer care services.
Aditya Malviya