Even before celebrating its first anniversary, BSNL, Indore's ambitious project WiLL has gone into the cold storage-for the time being. It would result in crores of rupees going down the drain, as there have been no takers for the project due to its ridiculously low range.
Even though the WiLL project was opened in the city with much fanfare in April last year, with a single tower at Tower Chouraha area with a range of mere 2-km there was promise from BSNL officials here to install more such towers to cover the entire city. Nevertheless, almost one year down the line, the senior officials could not add any more towers making the project most unpopular among the public.
Sanjeev Sharma, Deputy GM (Marketing), BSNL said the department had stopped selling the product in the market until such time when the service was improved in the city. Now the service is limited to some areas surrounding the Basic Terminating Sub-Modules (BTS) or tower located at Tower Chouraha. He also said that the department failed to convince the customers mainly due to its low range, which was just over 2-km in and around Sapna Sangeetha area. Who will opt for it? He said, "That is why we have stopped marketing it."
At present, the WiLL has an abysmally low number of customers around 180 including 50 departmental customers. The initial target was to rope in 10,000 customers.
Another reason for the low popularity of the project is the high cost of the handset, which has been fixed at Rs 10,000. Although the MTNL, Mumbai has reduced the handset price from Rs 10,000 to Rs 5,000, BSNL has not yet followed suit. Meanwhile Druv Kumar Aggarwal, GM, BSNL Indore, said things would improve by March this year.
Experts are of the view that the BSNL should have installed enough number of towers to cover the entire City before officially launching the project costing crores of rupees.