Minister Asks Bsnl To Recapture Mobile Market Share !

[Honest 836]

Minister asks BSNL to recapture mobile market share

Economic Times l 30 September 2008

Communications and Information Technology Minister A. Raja on Tuesday asked top officials of state-owned telecommunications major Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. to rework its marketing strategy with emphasis on rural markets to recapture lost market share in the mobile segment.

Raja told a meeting of the heads of the BSNL circle officers that the country's rural tele-density at 11 per cent was much lower than the targeted 30 per cent.

Expressing concern at BSNL's dwindling mobile segment market share, Raja said targeting rural customers to help bridge the digital divide was a challenge and also an opportunity for the company.

Asking the managers to work out new strategies to ensure the growth of BSNL's market share, he advised them to concentrate on cellular and broadband services.

The minister was, however, confident that BSNL will continue to contribute more than 50 percent in achieving a national target of 20 million broadband connections by 2010.

Raja asked the officers to pay urgent attention to quality of service, customer care and quick response to the needs of customers in order to beat the fresh challenges which are likely to arise out of the impending launch of Number Portability.

Further, he called for more intelligent financial management for better profit margins, keeping down costs, efficient utilization of capital assets, increasing revenue through sharing of infrastructure and reduction of outstanding dues.

On the manpower front, Raja said the officials need to be imparted special training in customer care and skills.

Besides, he said, BSNL could improve its value added services (VAS) to meet customer aspirations and increase revenue.

He called upon BSNL to ensure immediate rollout of 3G and WI-MAX services based on the spectrum already allocated to it by the government.

India's telecom network has more than 340 million telephones. Some 43.37 million connections have been provided in just five months during the current year.

[HetalDP 947]

What an overconfidence for BSNL.

[Honest 836]

BSNL told to act fast on revenue front

Economic Times l 2 Dec l Mumbai

Alarmed over the decline in Bharat Sanchar Nigam’s (BSNL) revenues and its payment of quarterly licence fee to the government, the Department of Telecom (DoT) has written a letter to the public sector unit to stem the rot at the earliest.

The PSU telco’s revenue dipped around 23% during the first quarter of the current fiscal over the immediately preceding quarter.

In a letter to BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal, DoT secretary Siddhartha Behura has said that the rapid decline in revenue in the first fiscal quarter is “alarming” and will “also affect the budgetary estimates of DoT for licence fee for the current year”.

In FY07-08, BSNL’s licence fee payments up to the second quarter stood at Rs 1,265.23 crore against the annual budget estimate of Rs 2,800 crore, which is 45.19% of the total licence fees.

However, during the current financial year, the payments in the first two quarters amount to only Rs 1,147.12 crore against the annual budget estimate of Rs 2,880 crore, which is around 40% of the total licence fees.

“It’s a matter of great concern that the adjusted gross revenue (AGR) figures that have been reported by BSNL are also beginning to show a decline. While the gross revenue had shown a consistent increase in the four quarters of 2007-08, it has shown a considerable decline in the first quarter,” said Mr Behura in the letter.

According to a top official in BSNL, the PSU operator is preparing a detailed note in response to the letter by Mr Behura. This letter is expected to detail the various financial issues plaguing BSNL and will be despatched later this week. BSNL had a subscriber-base of around 40 million users at October-end, with a market share of 13.7%. It has been extremely inconsistent in subscriber addition due to capacity constraints.

It has also been seeing a decline in revenues due to various factors. Following enormous delay in finalising its tender for GSM lines, floated in 2006, the public sector unit lost subscribers as well as market share to private players.

Further, its fixed line user-base, which was its core strength until recently, is also going down. Also, obligations for roll out in commercially enviable rural areas have led to a financial setback for the telco.

To add to its woes, the access deficit charge (ADC), which was paid by private operators to BSNL for subsidising rural telephony, has been ended. The regime was in force from 2003 till October 2008.

[Honest 836]

BSNL says DoT’s letter unfair

Economic Times l 8 Dec l New Delhi

State-owned telecom service provider BSNL said that the department of telecommunications’ (DoT) letter last week warning it about dwindling revenues is unfair and that the slowdown has affected earnings of the entire the sector.

According to a top BSNL official, the operator is preparing a detailed note in response to DoT’s letter, highlighting the reasons plaguing the PSU’s finances. BSNL has a subscriber base of 40 million and a market share of 13.7%.

“The slowdown has affected the entire sector. Almost every company has taken a hit in revenues and we are no exception. Besides, there are other factors also. We are trying to expand our wireless base and we will stabilise,” said a senior BSNL official.

BSNL’s revenue fell 23% during the first quarter of the current fiscal. DoT had also said that BSNL’s falling revenues would deeply affect the budgetary estimates for the current fiscal.

The BSNL official also said the withdrawal of the access deficit charge (ADC) is one of the reasons for the dent in the revenues. Private operators paid ADC to BSNL to subsidise the state-owned telco’s rural telephony. ADC was removed in October 2008.

The government relies heavily on the two state-owned telcos, BSNL and MTNL, for telecom services in rural areas.

[ssr 10]

When they first started with broadband services, the service was little bit good.

Now it is worsed, who will stay with them?

no minister can wake up sleeping babus

Edited December 8, 2008 by ss_rakesh

[Honest 836]

no minister can wake up sleeping babus

Very correct my dear friend.

[Honest 836]

BSNL to DoT: Q1 revenue is up y-o-y

Press Trust of India l 21 Dec l New Delhi

State-run telecom operator BSNL has told the Department of Telecom that its quarterly revenue ended June this year increased over the corresponding period last year and proposed that the licensor should not compare revenue sequentially.

The Telecom Secretary had recently written to the Chairman and Managing Director of BSNL saying the operator's revenue had dipped around 23 per cent during the first quarter of the current fiscal over the immediately preceding quarter.

"We have replied to the DoT's letter that compared on a year-on-year basis, our Q1 revenue has actually increased handsomely. We have suggested that the comparison should be year-on-year not sequentially. That way our Q1 (April-June) revenue is up. DoT has compared them with January-March quarter," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Kuldeep Goyal

said.

However, he did not disclose the actual increase. Unlisted BSNL does not release quarterly results.

Goyal said that the last quarter of the fiscal also contains the annual billings which are crucial to it in the overall

revenue calculation.

The PSU, which has seen intense competition from the private players, has also told the DoT that the withdrawal of access deficit charge (ADC), remuneration for BSNL's rural and remote obligations from the private players, had also affected its revenue.

ADC has been withdrawn in April this year.