Bsnl Losing 8 Per Cent Mkt Share Annually To Private Operators

[@ksh@T 20]

NEW DELHI: State-run telecom giant BSNL is losing eight per cent of its market share every year mainly in wireless operations to private companies, says a report of the Standing Committee on IT.

"As on October 2007, 273 million connections have already been provided... However, what concerns the Committee is that the share of public sector has declined to 27.6 per cent as on December 2007, whereas the share of private sector has increased to over 72 per cent," said the report, which has been tabled in Parliament.

"The CMD, BSNL's statement that the company has been losing around 8 per cent market share in a year is a matter of serious concern," the Committee said.

According to sources, BSNL had lost its share during the last year mainly due to delays in finalisation of 45 million GSM lines, which was later reduced by 50 per cent.

Till now the PSU has not been able to get the additional capacity and has thus lagged behind the private operators especially in the mobile operations.

"The PSUs should focus on technological upgradation and innovative marketing strategies to appropriately cater to the customer requirements so that their network expansion catches up to the private operators, especially in the wireless segment in the coming years," it added.

[carbinem4 2]

Yesssssssssssss good news ..the way they take their customers for granted ..this is the best thing to happen ...very sure it is going to close down soon

[kshah 452]

It will be great loss for cosumers if BSNL really looses ground.

[raccoon 53]

Very true... the PSUs are a v imp for the competition they infuse...

[@ksh@T 20]

BSNL to appoint private recovery agents to recover dues

NEW DELHI: Saddled with huge losses of over Rs 5,400 crore, state-owned telecom firm BSNL has asked its state units to appoint Private Recovery agents on commission basis to assist in recovery of dues, mostly from customers.

Besides this, circles have also been asked to utilise the services of state government departments in recovery of outstanding dues, Communication and IT Minister A Raja said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

"The total outstanding dues of BSNL against subscribers and private operators as on January 31, 2008 are Rs 5,488.04 crore," the minister said.

The outstanding dues have been created on account of the fact, that many customers do not pay the bills on time, change their premises and after defaulting, move to other new operators without paying their dues.

Instructions have been issued to circles to ensure timely issue of telephone bills and to effect disconnection of telephones for non-payment promptly. The company has fixed a 35-day deadline for disconnection due to non-payment of bills, the reply said.

Hitherto, banks and credit card companies were among the chief patrons of recovery agents, whose more often than not high-handed methods of recovering dues came for flak from the Reserve Bank of India last year.

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT and Communication had also expressed concern over BSNL's functioning as it was losing nearly eight per cent of its market share to private operators due to delays in adding GSM capacity last year.

With regard to arrears from private operators, the minister said that instructions are issued to all service providers from time to time to make payments.

BSNL, MTNL lose 46 lakh landline connections in 2007-08

NEW DELHI: Telecom PSUs BSNL and MTNL lost about 46 lakh landline connections in 2007-08, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

While 43.8 lakh BSNL lines were surrendered in the year, its sister concern MTNL lost 2.1 lakh connections, Minister of State for Communications and IT Jyotiraditya Scindia told the Upper House in a written reply.

The minister said the reasons for withdrawal of landline connections includes preference for mobile phones, move to private operator, disconnections due to non-payment of dues and surrendering of second telephone taken for get internet connection due to availability of broadband.

The total number of landlines in the country as on March 2008 is 3.9 crore, which was 4 crore in March 2007. At present, BSNL has 3.1 crore landline users while MTNL has 36.8 lakh users.

am happy to hear this the way they take their customers . .this shd always happen to them

[kshah 452]

Infact loss of landline should not be issue but in general PSU should not loose ground, else no one will provide services to non profit areas. Government should ensure that PSU tendering goes off smoothly. Private companies stall most of the tenders by proxy companies, who are in tender and then file suits in courts. Our courts at snail speed takes 3-5 years for verdict. BSNL has lost ground in mobile becoz of cases by private operator instigated cases by motorola and couple of other companies.

I really wonder if any one says that pivate companies apart from providing AC halls and polite answers, are providing any better / transperant services than BSNL.

I have been using BSNL since morethan 17 (total 7 connections) years and I have not visited their office even once for compalint resolution and with reliance and my past experiences of Hutch and AT&T,I have to visit atleast once a year to resolve complaint. Others may differ but I have repsect for BSNL and few other PSUS