"We will invest Rs 12,000 crore (Rs 120 billion) every year over the next three years for adding 10 to 12 million additional lines per annum.
The capital expenditure can, however, cross Rs 12,000 crore. This year we have invested close to Rs 13,000 crore (Rs 130 billion)," BSNL chairman and managing director Anil Kumar Sinha told newspersons on the sidelines of a CEO's conclave organised by Voice and Data magazine.
The BSNL's subscriber base stands at around Rs 5 crore (Rs 50 million) at present.The company was also planning to double the coverage of its mobile phone service by December 2005.
"We so so far covered 2,500 towns through our mobile phone service. It will expand to 5,000 by December next year," he said. Sinha said cut in access deficit charge rates can push up fixed line tariffs.
"At present only cell phone tariffs are cost based. Even in a city like Delhi fixed line tariffs are lower than the cost. If there is no ADC, rentals will have to be doubled and number of free calls will have to be brought down to zero to
keep the service viable. ADC was created to compensate fixed line operators for non cost-based tariffs and all of them get it," he said.