WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
West Bengal Telecom brings vision into reality
1. Introduction
West Bengal Telecom provides telecommunication services in the states of West Bengal
(excluding the area served by Calcutta Telephones) and Sikkim. In conformity with the
unique geography of the Circle with the Himalayas on the top and the bay of Bengal to
the down south, WB Telecom Circle provides all different types of telecom facilities like
serving the basic telecom needs of the people living in difficult hilly terrains or remote
corners of Sunderbans as well as providing high qualitiy, most modern telecom facilities
to the Industrial hub centres at Durgapur, Haldia etc. It serves the population of about
6.55 crores residing in 21 districts over the area of about 93,648 Sq.Km. For the purpose
of providing the services, the area has been divided into 14 LDCAs (Long Distance
Charging Areas) and further sub-divided into 71 SDCAs (Short Distance Charging
Areas).
1.1 Our Growth
We have increased our exchange capacity by 2.5 times in last three years to meet the
demand of our customers. The equipped capacity has grown to 16,14,863 as on
01.10.2003 and total working connection touched 12,91,974.
1.2 Rural Coverage Redefined
CDMA based macro cellular WLL systems has been introduced in last year to
extend telephone service any where in rural areas.
It has enabled us to provide telephone connections in far flung villages and remote
areas of West Bengal. We have so far provided public telephone facilities in 37,306
villages out of 38,337 populated revenue villages of West Bengal. WLL (Wireless in
Local Loop) Technology has been introduced for access to all villages.
To increase the accessibility of telephone services to common public, special emphasis
has been laid to provide more and more public telephones or PCOs. This also provides
some employment opportunity to the unemployed youth.
1.3 TAX Coverage and STD
The Network contains13 high capacity Digital Trunk Automatic Exchanges (TAX) with
broadband reliable optical fibre links. STD facility has been extended to all 1290
exchanges in West Bengal and 47 exchanges in Sikkim. Four CTMX (Computerised
Trunk Manual Exchanges) at Gangtok, Siliguri, Malda and Kharagpur have been
commissioned to gear up trunk facilities in Rural Telecom Network.
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
1.4 Internet
BSNL is providing Internet service throughout the country. On that basis, 18 Nos. C-III
type Internet nodes are operational in our circle at all district headquaters of West
Bengal & Sikkim through National Internet Backbone (NIB). Customers from any corner
of Sikkim and West Bengal are getting access to Internet on local call basis. To
increase access to Internet and to popularise the service, Internet PCOs have been
opened at Telegraph offices.
Opening of Sanchar Dhabas (Internet centres) are being encouraged in rural areas.
Access charges have been slashed drastically.
On line monitoring of the status of Internet nodes has been incorporated for quick and
efficient maintenance of the network.
On line printing of Sancharnet Cards have been started from Durgapur & Siliguri.
These cards are being sold from customer service centres of Coochbehar, Jalpaiguri,
Gangtok, Siliguri, Asansol, Bankura SSA. On procurement, customers can create their
own internet accounts on-line using the instruction of Sancharnet Cards.
Internet Telephony Service under the brandname Webfone has been introduced in
this Circle in September, 2002. With this service, by procuring Webfone cards from
any customer service centre, one can make a call from a multimedia PC in India to any
phone in PSTN abroad.
1.5 Direct Internet Access Service (DIAS)
DIAS has been installed at Siliguri & Darjeeling Exchange and is operational from
Dec'02 & May'03 repectively. There is a plan to extend DIAS facility to Asansol,
Durgapur, Burdwan, Kharagpur, Haldia & Gangtok within this year.
1.6 Integrated Services Digital Network (ISDN)
ISDN services are available from the state-of-art exchanges in District Headquarters
and major business towns of West Bengal. Facilities like digital telephony, video
conferencing, high-speed data transfer & FAX facility is available to ISDN customers in
one telephone socket.
ISDN facilities are presently available at most of the District Headquarters and in
business towns:- Asansol, Basirhat, Berhampur, Coochbehar, Durgapur, Habra,
Haldia, Jalpaiguri, Kharagpur, Krishnanagar, Malda, Midnapur, Raiganj, Raniganj,
and Siliguri.
1.7 Intelligent Network (IN)
IN, an important value added service, can provide important communication facilities
such as Virtual Private Network services, Virtual Card Calling Service, Free Phone
Service, Premium Rate Service, Televoting Services and Universal Access Number
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
Services.
At present, IN facility is available at Asansol, Bankura, Burdwan, Darjeeling,
Durgapur, Gangtok, Haldia, Kalimpong, Kharagpur, Krishnanagar, Kurseong,
Malda, Midnapore, Raiganj and Siliguri. IN facility will be extended to other places
progressively. Same ITC card can be used in almost 400 cities in India for making
STD / ISD calls.
1.8 WLL (CDMA) Services
Our Circle has introduced WLL systems in December 2001 throughout West Bengal
and Sikkim covering 69 SDCAs in rural areas. The WLL system consists of 11 numbers
of BSCs and 75 numbers of BTSs with 41,500 lines capacity. At present 28,472
connections are working in WLL out of which 13,145 VPTs and 15,327 new telephone
connections are working. The expansion of BTSs from 500 lines to 1,000 lines is in
progress.
A new Scheme called “GRAMEEN SANCHAR SEVAK” has been inaugurated by the
Hon’ble Prime Minister, Sri Atal Bihari Vajpayee, for extending telephone facilities to
rural areas through Sanchar Sevak of Postal Wing. Through this Scheme in West
Bengal Telecom. 128 WLL connections are presently working covering 609 villages.
One non-governmental organisation called Grameen Sanchar Society (GRASSO) has
come up with a noble idea to extend telecom facilities to rural masses of West Bengal
Telecom Circle through WLL. GRASSO has taken WLL connections from West Bengal
Telecom Circle by procuring 500 Fixed Wireless Terminals (FWTs). With the help of
FWTs, the GRASSO representatives move around villages extending telecom facilities.
At present the Scheme has been introduced in 6 (six) SSAs. Efforts are on to introduce
the Scheme in remaining 7 (seven) SSAs.
Our Circle has extensively used WLL system for providing village public telephones in
West Bengal Telecom Circle.
1.9 Cellular Mobile Telephone Services
BSNL has introduced Cellone and Ex-cel Cellular Mobile Telephone Services for post
and pre-paid subscribers respectively during the 2nd part of 2002. This service covers
all District headquarters and major towns of West Bengal and Sikkim. The service
supports Internet and Short Message Service (SMS). It provides full roaming facility in
all towns, major highways and railway routs of West Bengal and Sikkim.
The Service has become so popular that the subscribers base reached the milestone of
one lakh within a very short span of six months from the date of launching. Presently
we are having customer base of 1,20,641 and we are going to add 39,300 more
connections very shortly. Though BSNL was a late entrant in Mobile services, West
Bengal Telecom Circle has become No. 1 Mobile Service provider leaving the private
operator far behind within a very short span. Presently there is a huge demand for
BSNL Mobile connection in West Bengal Telecom Circle.
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
1.10 Leased line
West Bengal telecom is providing band width to the customers on demand through
leased data circuits ( 64Kbps, 2Mbps or NX64 Kbps) in West Bengal and Sikkim states.
Our Corporate customers are LIC, UBI, WEBEL, Indian Railways etc. West Bengal
Telecom is extending data circuits for their wide area networks on urgent basis with
reliable and high quality data transmission links of optical fibre or digital Microwave
systems.
Presently 10,475 Rkms of Optical Fibre and 5413.2 Rkms of Digital Microwave
links connect the telephone exchanges of our circle. Reliable high capacity STM-16
rings connect all district headquarters. All important industrial towns are also covered
by STM links. There are immediate plans to upgrade the rings with much higher
capacity DWDM systems.
1.11 Customer Services
Alongwith expansion of the network, the Circle has maintained thrust on continuous
improvement of customer care service.
IVRS (Interactive Voice Response System) based Fault Repair Services have been
opened at SSA HQs. Such services have been introduced in 49 SDCA Headquarters.
Massive computerisation programme is on the way for upgrading different departmental
collection centres and Customer Service Centres spread over the Circle to provide easy
customer interface, including issue of duplicate bills and redressal of billing complaints.
Our staffs manning such centres are given training and counselling on behavioural
ethics to improve upon dealings with visitors to these centres.
Call Centre:- One 30 positions day and night service call centre has been established
to serve the mobile customers in Eastern region.
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
2. STATUS REPORT (As on 29.02.2004)
2.1 Jurisdiction
State / U.T. Area (Sq. Km.) Population Capacity DEL Teledensity
West Bengal 86,552 6,24,24,574 16,25,261 13,00,390 2.08
(excluding CTD area.)
Sikkim 7,096 5,40,000 62,090 48,286 8.94
Total : 93,648 6,29,64,574 16,87,351 13,48,676 2.14
2.2 Switching Network ( As on 29.02.2004 )
Local Exchanges No. Transit / TAX / Telex No. Lines
OCB MAIN 8 OCB TAX 7 70 K
OCB RSU 83 EWSD TAX 3 24K
E-10B MAIN 3 AXE-10 TAX 2 16.5 K
E-10B RLU 18 C-DOT – CLT TAX 1 4K
C-DOT MBM (M) = 90 13 114.5 K
407
C-DOT MBM (R) = 317 Internet Services (Sancharnet of BSNL) :
ISP Nodes ( Type = C III ) 18
TCP/IP Customer 20,215
C-DOT SBM 107 ISDN Customer 272
Leased Line Customer (Internet) 17
C-DOT RAX 696 Sanchar Dhaba 181
DIAS Customer 102
5ESS (Main) 3 Transmission Network :
5ESS RSU 15 OFC Route Km. 11,051 Rkm.
Microwave Route Km. 3,032 Rkm.
Total Exchanges: 1340
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
2.3 STATUS REPORT ( As on 29.02.2004 )
STATUS AS ON
01.04.2003 01.04.2002 01/04/2001 01/04/2000
29.02.2004
Telephones
Equipped Capacity 16,87,351 15,29,852 12,64,434 9,72,382 7,05,027
Working Connection 13,48,671 12,18,722 10,03,251 7,42,905 5,41,131
No. of Exchanges 1,340 1,328 1,248 1,116 932
Panchayet and Non-Panchayet Village Telephone
a) Total Panchayet village, WBT [ WB-3325 + Sikkim-148 ]
b) Total Non-Panchayet village, WBT [ WB-34585 + Sikkim-279 ]
Total No. of villages [ WB-37910 + Sikkim-427 ]
i) Panchayet village covered 3,473 3,473 3,395 3,395 3,305
ii) Non-Panchayet village covered 33,833 33,833 20,407 16,602 13,162
Total villages covered : 37,306 37,306 23,802 19,997 16,467
Trunk Exchanges
Electronic ( TAX) 13 13 13 14 14
Manual 18 18 40 40 44
STD Service
Exchanges provided with STD 1,340 1,328 1,116 907 714
STD PCO 28,095 20,853 8,207 5,633 4,458
Telegraph Service
C.T.O. 2 2 2 2 2
D.T.O. 42 42 42 42 42
Telecom Centre 18 18 18 19 19
C.O. 1,974 1,974 1,974 1,974 1,974
Customer Service Centre 101 101 57 34 29
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
3
.1.6
2.4 GROWTH OF TELEPHONE SERVICES
( 01.04.2000 TO 01.10.2003 )
Village Public Telephone and STD PCO
Village Public Telephone and STD PCO
Annual Growth
West Bengal 21%
Equipped Capacity, Working Lines & Waiting List
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Equipped Capacity, Working Lines & Waiting List Page: 7
WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
2.5 Revenue Target & Achievement in W.B.T.C.
Amount in "Cr." of Rs.
Financial Year
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
2.6 a) TECHNOLOGY-WISE BREAK-UP OF VPTs
TECHNOLOGY NO. OF VPTS
VPTs on Landline 13545
VPTs on WLL 13145
VPTs on MARR 10597
VPTs on INMARSAT 19
TOTAL 37306
b) EXCHANGE-WISE DEPARTMENTAL BUILDING/PRIVATE
RENTED BUILDING
TYPE WEST BENGAL SIKKIM
Departmental 111 08
Private 1180 38
TOTAL 1291 46
c) MARR VPT REPLACEMENT PLAN
Total No. of VPTs working on MARR technology : 10597
No. of VPTs already replaced with WLL as on 1.4.2003 : 1427
YEAR TARGET ACHIEVEMENT
2003-04 6000 105
2004-05 3170 -
d) WAITING LIST LIQUIDATION PLAN
Total waiting list as on 01.10.2003 : 1,62,256
YEAR-WISE BREAK-UP OF WAITING LIST
PENDING FROM WAITING LIST NOS. (APPROX)
2000 3,000
2001 15,000
2002 80,000
2003 64,000
TOTAL 1,62,000
This year we have planned to provide 2,05,000 new connections in Landline and WLL,
which will enable us to clear all the registrations for New Telephone Connections made
upto June 2003 by March 2004.
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
2.7 TARGETS & ACHIEVEMENTS
a) FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2001-02
ITEMS TARGET ACHIEVEMENT
Equip. Capacity 334,200 314,068
No. of Exchanges 100 132
DELs 300,000 258,581
VPTs 14,535 10,357
TAX Expansion 39,500 14,000
PCO 5,000 5,751
OFC Route Kms 5,000 2,541
M/W Route Kms 300 287
Cellular Mobile Coxns - -
WLL Connections 24,500 8,637
Revenue realisation (In Crore) 429.12 410.01
b) FOR THE FINANCIAL YEAR 2002-03
ITEMS TARGET ACHIEVEMENT
Equip. Capacity 292,700 244,520
No. of Exchanges 130 80
DELs 217,000 217,236
VPTs 4,178 3,147
TAX Expansion 50,000 39,500
PCO Nil 3,089
OFC Route Kms 3,700 2,805
M/W Route Kms - 25
Cellular Mobile Coxns 67,000 72,897
WLL Connections 20,000 18,323
Revenue realisation (In Crore) 495.77 474.69
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WEST BENGAL TELECOM.
2.8 Targets in 2003-04 & Achievement upto 30.09.2003
ITEM TARGET ACHIEVEMENT
NET SWITCHING CAPACITY ADDITION 2,16,000 lines 17,461 lines
DEL ADDITION 2,85,000 lines 73,252 lines
CELLULAR MOBILE 80,000 lines 47,744 lines
NEW TELEPHONE EXCHANGE 50 8
VILLAGE PUBLIC TELEPHONES 53 Nil
TAX EXPANSION 16 K Nil
OPTICAL FIBRE 500 Rkm. 486.5 Rkm
IVRS BASED FAULT BOOKING 21 locations Nil
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