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Written by Pranav Mukul |
Updated: April 20, 2016 5:25 am

BSNL had an annual target of adding 2,26,000 mobile connections to its network during the year in the region but managed to add only 65,352 new connections during the year till December 31, 2015.

While private telecom operators have focussed more on metros and tier-I regions with high revenue generation capabilities instead of those such as the Northeast, state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has, in the past, taken up the challenge for expansion of telecom services such as mobile telephony and broadband in sparsely populated and far-flung areas of India.

Even as the government has placed its bets on improving rural telecom infrastructure by the way of increasing connectivity to these areas, BSNL is expected to miss its annual connectivity targets in the Northeast region for yet another year.

According to the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) annual report for financial year 2015-16, BSNL had an annual target of adding 2,26,000 mobile connections to its network during the year in the region but managed to add only 65,352 new connections during the year till December 31, 2015.

“Annual Plan of BSNL pays special emphasis on accelerated growth of telecommunication facilities under Special Component Plans,” the DoT’s annual report said, adding that the special component plans include one for Northeastern region of the country, and another for tribal areas.

This is despite the Centre’s plan to implement the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the Northeastern region at an estimated expenditure of Rs 5,336.18 crore in a bid to provide a major boost to telecom connectivity in the region. The proposal was cleared by the Union Cabinet in September 2014, only a few months after the NDA government came to power. Once implemented, the project would provide 2G mobile coverage in identified uncovered areas of the Northeast, provide seamless 2G mobile coverage along national highways in the region and ensure reliability of transmission network at state capitals and district headquarters.

Situation of wireline, or landline telephone connections in the Northeast has been even more grim than the wireless services. BSNL had a target of increasing 2,200 wireline connections during the year but it lost 9,553 landline connections by December 31, 2015. As of December-end BSNL had 59.31 per cent market share in the wireline subscriber base of the country, followed by Bharti Airtel at 14.10 per cent.

The Northeastern region of India comprises eight states — Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, and Arunachal Pradesh. The public sector telecom company’s target for broadband connections, too, seems like a far destination to be reached even though the data for the last three months of the financial year – January, February and March – is awaited. Against a target of 43,350 additions, BSNL managed to add only 2,004 broadband users during April 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015.

Even in case of tribal areas in the states of Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, among others, BSNL is not expected to meet its target of adding 87,737 broadband connections during 2015-16 as it has managed to add only 7,552 in the first nine months of the financial year. The company, which was expected to lay 1,107 route kilometers of optic fibre cable during the year, could only 261 route kilometers up to December 31, 2015.

Last year, Minister of Communications and Information Technology Ravi Shankar Prasad was reported as saying that BSNL was a Rs 10,000-crore profit-making entity when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee-government exited in 2003, and when the Narendra Modi-government took charge in 2014, it was making a loss of Rs 8,000 crore adding that the Centre was working to improve the company’s situation it in next few years.

It is not the first time BSNL would be missing its targets for improving connectivity in the Northeast, and even though it has missed targets before, the 2015-16’s targets were more rationalised than its previous year’s aim. For FY15, a target of adding 5,08,900 mobile connections in the Northeast was set for BSNL and it ended up losing 98,396 connections during the year. Against a target of adding 3,000 wireline users, the firm registered a net loss of 29,635 connections, and added only 501 broadband connections in the area compared with an aim of adding 59,306 subscribers.

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