BSNL—Ringing in the Right Tones

A day before Gandhi Jayanti, the DTS and the DoT were corporatized into one

entity called the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, to provide a world class telecom

service which would be reliable and affordable.

As the first CMD of BSNL Dr Devendra PS Seth has lots of obstacles to cross.

Having already found a place for his company in the Fortune 500 list his next

task would be to put the company in the Fortune 100 list - an uphill task which

only BSNL can undertake in the telecom sector.

What is the present status of Bharat Sanchar Nigam

Limited, as the company was put in place on 1st October 2000?



A. Presently, the valuation of the assets in different circles, on a cash

basis, is going on and only then can we talk about the precise valuation of BSNL.

A provisional assessment has been made already in the past.

The corporate structure is in place. The company has got a

Board and a set of policies. All the things are in position not only in the head

office but also in the circle. Since BSNL started functioning in the middle of

the financial year, our first priority should be to ensure that the targets for

2000-01 are met, which means all actions which are needed towards achieving that

objective are completed before we get down to any other activities. We have done

that and we have also taken a number of activities in enhancing customer

services in all the circles.

Is there any new group that you have incorporated in the

BSNL structure?



A. There are two new groups that have been incorporated in the BSNL

structure headed by a director. There is an operations group under Prithipal

Singh; and commercial & new services group under BR Khurana, which were not

existing earlier.

The commercial and new services group was created as there is

more stress on new services in BSNL in the future and the operations group will

help in providing better services, by keeping the systems up and running,

thereby providing a more reliable service in future.

With the government announcing that the BSNL board will

take its own decision on investment and other issues, how will this help you in

moving at a faster pace?



A. The basic requirement for any company to move forward is that they should

be able to take their decisions at a faster pace and implement them with the

same speed. The powers that the government has given us now will provide us the

flexibility in regard to investment. For instance we have a plan to enter into

cellular mobile service and we are planning to come out with NIT (notice

inviting tender) in early December. We expect that between September and

December next year we would be rolling out our network all over the country (in

all 21 circles, Chennai and Calcutta, except in Delhi and Mumbai).

Are you planning for ventures outside the country or entering

into new services other than cellular mobile services?

A. So far as venturing outside is concerned, we are holding

talks with TCIL, VSNL, and MTNL. These are preliminary talks at the moment and

we will work out some arrangement.

Last year, DoT had a turnover of around Rs 20,000 crores.

What is the expectation that you have from BSNL?



A. It is possible that we may have to go in for a marginally larger

borrowing from the market, which would be used for our expansion plans.

Even in the earlier plan (before BSNL was formed) there was a

borrowing factor.

We are still discussing with the Ministry of Finance on tax

exemptions that were made available to other companies. All these parameters

would require some borrowing. The final figure on the extent of borrowing will

depend on what final decision is arrived at.

On achieving the objectives of NTP ‘99?

A. So far as the objectives of NTP ‘99 are concerned, it will be a

combined effort of the operators. As far as BSNL is concerned, we will continue
the activity of adding more lines, providing cellular lines and achieving tele-density

by providing both wireline and wireless coverage.

We are planning to go in a big way for cellular mobile

services all over the country and for value added services, we are formulating

our final plan which will contribute to the objective of NTP 99. Our emphasis is

going to be on value added services and it would be a continuous process over

the years.

You have not done well on the ISP front as you have got

only 75,000 subscribers in 65 cities. What are you doing to be reckoned as a

major force in the ISP market?



A. So far as our strength is concerned, no one else matches us on that when

it comes to reliability and bandwidth but there is a lot to be achieved. We have

worked out certain sets of decisions. First is the NIB (National Internet

Backbone) which would be commissioned any day now as various tests are getting

completed. This will help in providing higher bandwidth inside the country.

About international bandwidth, we will work out some arrangement with VSNL as

they are expanding their bandwidth. These things will help in improving the ISP

segment that will be accompanied by an aggressive marketing campaign, which has

started with the coming out of an aggressive Internet tariff structure.

How about maintaining the 343,000 VPTs in the country that

were installed by DTS?



A. When it comes to village telephony, we are definitely committed to it.

The government, while giving us power, has clearly stated that projects which

are uneconomical financial packages will be made available to us. Now it is for

the government to work out what kind of packages and how they are going to give

it to us, so that the funds are available for installation of new VPTs in the

country.

For the maintenance aspect, the issue basically is that one

can maintain a good network and not a bad one. Once we replace MARR

(multi-access rural radio) VPTs with WiLL or cellular technologies, the

situation changes totally and the maintenance becomes a lot easier. There is an

announced program that says, subject to the funding being available, the

existing MARR systems will be replaced by WiLL systems. We have already

proceeded in this direction for almost 60,000 villages in the country and it

will depend upon how much equipment comes to us and how much funding come to us

for installation of these systems in villages.

Are you planning to have separate telecom circles for the

three new states of Chattisgarh, Uttarakhand, and Jharkhand?



A. These will be administratively independent circles as it will be more of

an administrative type of arrangement within the existing circle. As our circles

are not based on states and it is at large continuous, for e.g. Maharashtra

covers Maharashtra and Goa, North East covers six states, and in UP we have two

circles–UP (E) and UP (W). We do not have any direct correlation between the

number of circles and states. But for reasons of more administrative convenience

and interaction with the state governments, we will post a very senior officer,

of the post of principal general manager, which is of the same rank as that of

chief general manager, to look after new states.

How do you plan to move forward with different public

sector units like VSNL and MTNL?



A. We would like to co-operate with as many as possible, as we believe

synergy provides better results than individual efforts, as each one of us have

got strengths.

About the structure of BSNL?



A. I would very much like that we go on the basis of units based on business

lines but we are still discussing that option against geographical options. For

e.g. we can have one division comprising of cellular services in all the regions

or we can have geographical areas offering different services like cellular,

basic or ISP services. Once we get the final report from the consultant we would

decide what model would work for us.

How do you plan to increase your average revenue per DEL?



A. The average revenue per DEL has decreased because of the changes in the

STD rate. The kind of traffic increase, which was projected by TRAI, did not

come about but now we are observing a traffic increase. We are going into new

services and that will bring us more revenue.

What is the vision of BSNL?



A. We expect ourselves to be a hi-tech customer oriented service provider,
with emphasis on value addition.