Bsnl
BSNL
August marked an important transition at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Gopal Das took over as chairman and managing director (CMD) of the state-run, integrated telecom service provider, following the retirement of former CMD Kuldeep Goyal. His appointment is being looked upon with much anticipation as a lot rides on him. The once-coveted telecom operator has been on a downward spiral and Das will need to dip into every resource and skill he has acquired during his 35-year-long telecom career to turn the company around.
In spite of operating in the world’s fastest growing telecom market and having held a leadership position in this space till 2008, BSNL has over the past two years been struggling to hold its own in the face of fierce competition from nimbler private sector operators.
BSNL’s sliding performance has become a cause of concern for its management and the government, which has 100 per cent stake in the company. Pushed to the fifth position in the mobile telephony pecking order, BSNL had 73.78 million subscribers as of July 2010, against Bharti Airtel’s 139.22 million, Reliance Communications’ (RCOM) 113.31 million, Vodafone Essar’s 111.46 million and Tata Teleservices’ 74.84 million subscribers.
BSNL’s mainstay – its landline business from which it still derives 63 per cent of its revenue and in which it has nearly 80 per cent market share – has also been giving way over the years. Subscribers are less and less interested in fixed line phones. In 2009, the company lost as many as 1.1 million wireline subscribers. And the slide is expected to continue. Recently, the IT and communications minister, Sachin Pilot, stated that BSNL’s studies to ascertain the reasons for the mass surrender of connections would help the company assess and optimise the future growth potential.
Once a serious contender for the top slot in the country’s booming mobile industry, the company has, in the past few years, been facing a debilitating capacity crunch. Its
August marked an important transition at Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). Gopal Das took over as chairman and managing director (CMD) of the state-run, integrated telecom service provider, following the retirement of former CMD Kuldeep Goyal. His appointment is being looked upon with much anticipation as a lot rides on him. The once-coveted telecom operator has been on a downward spiral and Das will need to dip into every resource and skill he has acquired during his 35-year-long telecom career to turn the company around.
In spite of operating in the world’s fastest growing telecom market and having held a leadership position in this space till 2008, BSNL has over the past two years been struggling to hold its own in the face of fierce competition from nimbler private sector operators.
BSNL’s sliding performance has become a cause of concern for its management and the government, which has 100 per cent stake in the company. Pushed to the fifth position in the mobile telephony pecking order, BSNL had 73.78 million subscribers as of July 2010, against Bharti Airtel’s 139.22 million, Reliance Communications’ (RCOM) 113.31 million, Vodafone Essar’s 111.46 million and Tata Teleservices’ 74.84 million subscribers.
BSNL’s mainstay – its landline business from which it still derives 63 per cent of its revenue and in which it has nearly 80 per cent market share – has also been giving way over the years. Subscribers are less and less interested in fixed line phones. In 2009, the company lost as many as 1.1 million wireline subscribers. And the slide is expected to continue. Recently, the IT and communications minister, Sachin Pilot, stated that BSNL’s studies to ascertain the reasons for the mass surrender of connections would help the company assess and optimise the future growth potential.
Once a serious contender for the top slot in the country’s booming mobile industry, the company has, in the past few years, been facing a debilitating capacity crunch. Its