Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd plans to provide broadband services in a big way in 2004 and would introduce the service in seven major cities in the country, including Chennai, BSNL chief managing director Prithipal Singh said in Nagercoil on Thursday.

He told reporters that the year 2004 would be the year of broadband services. The services would be provided in seven cities by March next, he said.

Singh said BSNL was also planning to introduce same tariff for fixed telephone service and mobile services in phases.

BSNL also targeted to issue 10 to 15 million mobile phones next year across the country. It has already issued 20 million mobile phones, he said.

Meanwhile, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology Ashok Pradhan said the international long distance traffic of BSNL had shown an increase of about 9.58 million minutes during November 2003 as compared to November 2002.

In a written reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Pradhan said BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd had offered reduced ILD tariff to the extent of 70 per cent for select countries as a promotional scheme.

To a query, he said the profits of MTNL in Delhi and Mumbai had dipped by 33 per cent mainly on account of downward revision of national long distance and ILD tariffs during the year.

However, he said there were no losses as decrease in tariff was bringing increased volume of traffic.

To another query, he said there was no case involving an outstanding amount in crores of rupees against any individual telephone connection.

However, he said the net cumulative amount of telephone dues in Ghaziabad was Rs 21.24 crore (Rs 212.4 million) which was only about three per cent of the amount billed during the relevant period. He said BSNL was taking steps to realise dues.