People have moved on from the ageing landlines as smartphones have taken over users' necessity to communicate. But state-run carrier BSNL is launching a new scheme to revive people's interest in landline phones.
According to the network provider, the new plan will offer unlimited free national calls from its landlines to other landlines as well as mobile phones under any network. The new scheme will kick off on 1 May, BSNL said, ET reports.
"BSNL has introduced unlimited free calling during night hours from its landline phones to all landline phones and mobile phones of all service provider's network on all India basis from 1st May," the network provider was quoted as saying.
As per the plan, BSNL will make all calls anywhere in India free between 9 pm and 7 am, regardless of the connection type. BSNL will also include all major landline plans in rural and urban areas, including special plans and major combo plans.
In India, most users depend on wireless networks for communication purposes. Fixed lines, despite their unprecedented benefits, have massively dropped over the past years. According to Hemant Joshi of Deloitte Haskins & Sells LLP Partner, BSNL's new scheme will help in the growth of landlines. Currently, there are only about 27 million connections in India, whereas wireless networks dominate with 960 million connections, Huffington Post reports.
BSNL dominates the landline market with 62.26% share but it lost significantly to Airtel in the month of February, according to TRAI data. BSNL lost over 162,000 fixed line customers in February, while Airtel's user base grew with 1.66 crore landline connections as of February.
BSNL hasn't announced an end date for its attractive scheme but revealed that the plan will be reviewed after six months.
