STATE TIMES NEWS
JAMMU: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in an RTI reply has admitted that it has received over 5,000 complaints from mobile subscribers across the state of Jammu and Kashmir.
In an RTI reply to the information seeker RTI activist Raman Sharma the DGM(CM) cum Public Information Officer of the BSNL informed that during 11 months’ period from April-2015 to Feb-2016, the total number of complaints received by the company is 5,780, during this period, 563 complaints of call drops and 5,217 regarding poor network connectivity were received.
In the communication letter sent by the BSNL to Sharma vide their Letter No. 1-288/DE/Plg//RTI Cases/2010-11/24 dated 29th March 2016, the PIO has also informed that as on date there are total 12,58,507 registered mobile subscribers with the company in Jammu and Kashmir including 9,73,684 pre-paid connections and 2,84,823 mobile subscribers.
The RTI reply also stated that during the financial year 2014-15, at least 526 mobile subscribers moved to other companies using mobile-portability facility and during the financial year 2015-16 the number of mobile subscribers who shunned BSNL gone more than double and during the last financial year, 1,123 mobile subscribers preferred other companies using mobile portability service.
The year-wise information provided by the BSNL also reveals slow pace of growth of the company in Jammu and Kashmir, in long time of even 5 years BSNL added less than 3 lakh new mobile subscribers in all 22 districts of the State.
Shockingly, the data reveals that in the Financial Year 2014-15, the company lost at least 10,000 mobile subscribers, in the year 2013-14 BSNL had 9,26,045 pre-paid and 2,48,208 post mobile subscribers (total 11,74,253) that witnessed a steep downfall and in the year 2014-15, the company had only 8,87,713 Pre-paid and 2,75,829 post paid subscribers a loss of total 10,711 subscribers.
Interestingly, during last 2 years 7,757 mobile subscribers shifted to BSNL network using mobile portability, 1,873 in financial year 2014-15 and 5,884 in 2015-16.
Raman Sharma, the information seeker informed that BSNL has denied him information regarding total amount of money it earned by selling Vanity/VIP numbers and also information regarding the detail about vanity numbers given free of cost by the company and for it he would be submitting proper appeal before higher authorities of the company.
