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It’s celebration time for BSNL as the company has achieved the 1-million
mark in cellular services. The company also has the distinction of being the
fastest company to achieve this mark. This is a great achievement for an
incumbent operator that has always been accused of being inefficient. BSNL has
achieved this rare feat in three months, adding an average of 5,500 subscribers
per day.
Though BSNL was the third operator in cellular services, it started as a
fourth operator in majority of the circles due to bureaucratic delays. The
company has done pretty well in almost all the circles and has silenced its
critics by bagging either number two or number three positions in all the
circles except Tamil Nadu and Madhya Pradesh.
The credit for this landmark achievement can be attributed to pricing,
network design, and coverage. BSNL’s Plan325 was the main trigger for
achieving this landmark number. Initially, it was felt that the plan was just
promotional in nature and BSNL wouldn’t be able to carry it on for long. But
with TDSAT giving a go ahead to the plan, BSNL has gained an edge in terms of
pricing vis-Ã -vis private operators.
The cellular network design of BSNL is excellent as it provides an excellent
coverage on highways–state as well as national–which makes it ideal for
people who are roaming inter-state as well as intra-state. This has given a lot
of word-of-mouth publicity to BSNL, which has paid little attention to
advertisement in media excepting the few introductory advertisements that
appeared on TV channels.
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BSNL plans to provide coverage in 1,021 cities (Phase I and Phase II). The
company had plans to provide coverage in around 800 cities by December-end,
which would give it extra mileage over private operators. In Maharashtra, Bharti
is operational in around 20 cities whereas BSNL is operational in 120 cities.
This sheer difference gives a huge advantage to BSNL in achieving those numbers.
Private service providers are focusing only on those areas where they can get
maximum return on investment but for BSNL it’s more-the-merrier kind of
scenario as it already has the infrastructure in place. Only incremental amount
is added to provide cellular services in newer areas.
The cellular service is moving in full steam but there are several roadblocks
to be removed if it wants to retain the No. 1 position. Issues like network
expansion and SIM card procurement have to be sorted out before things go out of
control. The cellular capacity has exhausted in many cities, and the second
phase of expansion should take place at a fast pace so that there is no
discontinuity of service. BSNL must overcome this if it has to retain the No. 2
position in cellular services in the country.