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Kripa Raman

`Various private operators have aggressively entered the telecom sector. To counter their claims and to give adequate publicity to BSNL services, marketing strategy has been planned.'

Mumbai , Aug. 8

THE Maharashtra circle of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd continues with its relentless combat against newer entrants like Reliance Infocomm and has started to mail comparative charts of the two services to some of its customers in the State along with its bills to them.

For a public sector company, some of its sections had been pretty much on their toes in this respect, admitted a senior executive with a private cellular company.

The BSNL Maharashtra circle had, some months ago, put up on its Web site, a comparative chart of its services — both basic and mobile — and that of Reliance Infocomm at the time of the latter's entry on the scene.

The circle has now put up a new comparative chart following Reliance's newer Rs 501 entry offer and its two budget plans — Reliance Budget Rs 149 and Reliance Budget Rs 249.

"It is suggested that the chart showing BSNL v/s Reliance may be sent to the customers via e-mail or by post along with the bills," says a July circular from the Deputy General Manager at BSNL, addressed to all the Secretaries of Switching Areas (SSAs) in Maharashtra, asking them to report compliance by the end of the month.

"As you are aware, various private operators have aggressively entered the telecom sector. To counter their claims and to give adequate publicity to BSNL services, marketing strategy has been planned," says the circular, in its introductory remarks.

BSNL is keen to protect its turf in its largest circle of operation. It has been extremely successful with its cellular GSM service in the circle despite being the last entrant. It has the second largest subscriber base of 3,46,842 (as on June 30, 2003) within less than a year of operations, the largest being with IDEA Cellular, which has a subscriber base of 5,09,932. The third largest operator in the cirlce, BPL Mobile, is way below BSNL, with a base of 2,06,836 only.

Strangely enough the comparative charts lay emphasis on BSNL's landline service versus Reliance Infocomm's limited mobility service, although mention has been made of some of the advantages of BSNL's GSM service CellOne as well.

"This is because we feel that the perceived advantages of the Reliance service is the attractive STD rates, also it is trying to sell itself as an alternative to a fixed line too, and we want people to stick to the BSNL landline in this respect, especially in the inter-circle calling area," says a BSNL official.

Apart from the comparative chart with Reliance Infocomm, there is another that shows BSNL as a Smart Choice for customers.

Mr Sandeep Kolwadkar, Deputy General Manager, Marketing, says his department across the State has been pretty active in communicating the comparative charts to the market.

Reliance Infocomm is being seen as a competitor to both BSNL's basic and cellular services.

The complicated comparative chart from BSNL for its landline service vs/Reliance lists various call combinations and usage patterns and puts them into four categories: `best, good, ok, and inferior'.

It appears quite bold in that it also lists the usage combinations where it is inferior to Reliance. "This would add conviction to what we say," said a BSNL official.

The chart takes into account not only tariff per minute but also the combination of `rent-plus-freecalls-plus call charges'. "The chart tries to drive home the point that apart from a few usage combinations (calls to WLL or GSM phones) in the 200-500 km and the above 500-km category, BSNL is more economical in every respect," says a BSNL official.

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