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India cold-shoulders Maran's 'One India'  

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CIOL Bureau
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NEW DELHI: The ambitious scheme of Union Minister Dayanidhi Maran, the OneIndia,
seems to have hit a roadblock.






The much-hyped OneIndia scheme was announced on March 1, 2006. The scheme
offered subscribers a tariff of Re 1 per minute to call anywhere in the country.

However, the scheme has not attracted many takers.






The Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has only added 15,000 new subscribers
under this new scheme. When contacted, BSNL officials denied that the scheme had

few takers.






“It has just been a month and majority of our customers are still unaware
about this scheme and its benefits. We are hopeful that in the coming months we

will add encouraging numbers. Currently, we have around three lakh subscribers

under the OneIndia scheme, which itself is encouraging,” officials opined.






According to the officials the OneIndia scheme has taken off fairly well with
these numbers.






However, the department admitted that the scheme required more publicity for
marketing their product in the competitive telecom market.






According to BSNL official sources, the real story seems to be different. Though
the total number of subscribers under this scheme is three lakh, only 15,000 are

new additions. The rest are from other existing plans.






“BSNL failed to attract more subscribers since most of the private operators
announced similar schemes earlier. The scheme, which was to take off on January

1, had to be delayed by two months, which was the main reason for low

response,” an official said.






Even though the BSNL officials refused to reveal the advertising costs, sources
said that the company has already spent a significant amount on advertisements.






The company itself projected a loss of around Rs 5,000 crore due to the launch
of the scheme. Maran had initiated the scheme, but initially faced opposition

from BSNL board over tariffs. Sources said the scheme failed to add new

subscribers in the coming months time it would hit the company's finances

badly.






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