Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited has been tackling the threat posed by incumbents in the last couple of years, and the telco even managed to increase its market share from 7.6% to 9.43%. BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava, during the company's Heads of Circles Conference (HOCC) of senior officers of BSNL meeting in New Delhi, stressed that the telco has been able to increase the market share by going head-on with the private telecom operators. During the same conference, Manoj Sinha stated that BSNL has a lot of opportunities in the future and it has been already allotted Rs 150 crore worth Smart City projects in the country. BSNL is helping the Indian government set up public Wi-Fi hotspots across the nation.
Alongside BSNL Board of Directors and Heads of BSNL Telecom Circles, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha and Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan also attended the event. The field officers of BSNL should focus on better customer service and try to change the negative customer perception about BSNL, said Manoj Sinha.
“Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has many more big opportunities in near future other than mobile telephony. Many tenders have been finalized for 2G, 3G and 4G services. Market share of BSNL has been improved from 7.6% to 9.43% which is commendable. BSNL can play a significant role in Smart City projects, NFS and FTTH. Works worth Rs 150 Crore has been allotted to BSNL under smart city projects, which can be taken as an advantage”, the Minister added.
"There is tough competition in the telecom scenario these days. Even in this turbulent times, BSNL could not only face the competition head-on by matching tariff by tariff and even at times proactively coming up with bold, innovative, unlimited data and voice plans. This has helped BSNL to increase its market share as well as remain MNP positive," said Shrivastava during the conference.
Aruna Sundararajan underlined the need for BSNL to be aggressive and innovative. BSNL is a key partner in BharatNet implementation and has increased market share as well in recent times, so smart thinking and smart implementation at this stage will be an edge for BSNL, she added.
"We have deliberately re-named the National Telecom Policy as National Digital Communication Policy (NDCP) 2018 which aims to provide Broadband for All. The objective is that every citizen of India must have broadband of 10 Mbps speed by 2022. We are also organising workshops with States to aggressively drive that and make sure that by 2022, broadband becomes available to all," Sundararajan said.
Having said that, Sundararajan believes that BSNL has a clear lead and advantage. While we realise the target of installing five million wifi hotspots by 2020 and 10 million hotspots by 2022, as mentioned in the draft NDCP 2018. 50% of household in India will have FTTH," Ms Sundararajan said.
BSNL has been fighting hard with the government for the allotment of 4G spectrum. Once it gets allotted, BSNL will roll out high-speed 4G services in the country, which will help the telco go head-on-head with private operators in a better way.
