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There has been a lot of talks regarding the merger of state-run telcos Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited, but today, Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha has confirmed that there’s no proposal to merge the companies. “There is no proposal to merge BSNL and MTNL. We had appointed a consultant to revive MTNL, who has given some recommendations. We are working on it,” the minister said. Also, after more than four years, MTNL has got a chairman and managing director. P K Purwar has been appointed as the Chairman of MTNL. The post was empty since May 30, 2014. Sinha also stated that India is not going to miss the 5G bus this time around.
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Manoj Sinha ruled out the merger, at least for now. For the unaware, MTNL operates in Mumbai and Delhi circles, while BSNL operates in the rest of 20 circles. MTNL subscriber base is very less, while BSNL has over 110 million subscribers under its belt. BSNL also helps the government with several projects such as BharatNet in setting the public Wi-Fi hotspots.
Earlier this month, it was reported that there is a proposal given by the central public sector enterprises to merge all the state-run telecom firms such as MTNL and BSNL to create a big public sector entity. But that news turns out to be a false one as BSNL and MTNL will act as separate entities going forward. It will be interesting to see how MTNL folds up in the future under the leadership of new CMD.
Manoj Sinha spoke at length with reporters during a seminar on 5G technology. He reiterated that India will get all the 5G services in-line with other countries. “Getting 5G to reality is our government’s priority and we are serious about it,” he said.
