Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications
Wednesday, Dec 17, 2003
Financial Daily from THE HINDU group of publications Wednesday, Dec 17, 2003 |
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Info-Tech
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Telecommunications BSNL not worried about surrender of fixed lines — Sees 5% increase in turnover Our Bureau
Chennai , Dec. 16 BHARAT Sanchar Nigam Ltd is not worried about its subscribers surrendering their fixed lines. "There may be ample reasons for that. The customers now have more choice (fixed line, cellular and limited mobility services)," Mr Prithipal Singh, Chairman and Managing Director, Bharat Sanchar Nigam, said here today. Hence, subscribers surrendering fixed lines may still be within the company's fold. He was confident that BSNL, a Government of India enterprise, would achieve its target of providing six million telephone connections this year. This included fixed lines, GSM (Global System for Mobile Communications) cellular and Wireless in Local Loop (WLL) - mobile connections. Mr Singh was answering questions from journalists here today after a day-long workshop on `Emerging telecom scenario in India' organised by the Press Information Bureau and BSNL, Chennai Telephones. However, he expected demand for fixed line connections to pick up again after two years. This was because quality of voice and data available on fixed line connections would be superior to that on wireless services. Also, as broadband services were rolled out, demand for fixed line would go up. At present, BSNL has stopped buying fixed line equipment. He said that BSNL hoped to end this year with a turnover of about Rs 29,000 crore and a net profit of Rs 3,000 crore, against a turnover of Rs 26,000 crore and a net profit of Rs 1,440 crore last year. The more than doubling in net profit was because last year BSNL provided for Rs 1,500 crore towards salary arrears to its employees after the Department of Telecommunications got converted into a company and was renamed BSNL, company officials explained. Apart from operational improvement, the revenue per line had gone up from Rs 500 to Rs 570. Mr Singh said that the company invested Rs 10,000 crore to Rs 12,000 crore a year on infrastructure. Most of this came from internal accruals and BSNL expected to meet its investment requirements from its own resources at least till the end of the 10th Plan period, till which time it expected Government support to continue. BSNL was reimbursed licence fees and spectrum charges. If this assistance were not forthcoming after a couple of years, BSNL would have to restructure its financing and look to borrow from the market. He said the thrust areas would be providing more value-added services on the Intelligent Network platform, rolling out broadband services, and improving its network. Mr M. Kannan, Adviser, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, said the regulator had recommended to the Centre to reduce customs duty on mobile handsets from 14 per cent to 5 per cent. This would help bring down handset costs and also increase telephone penetration.
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