Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
Encyclopedia
Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (abbreviated BSNL) is a state-owned telecommunications company headquartered in New Delhi
, India
. It is the largest provider of fixed telephony
and fourth largest mobile telephony
provider in India, and is also a provider of broadband
services. However, in recent years the company's revenue and market share plunged into heavy losses due to intense competition in Indian telecommunications sector.
BSNL is India's oldest and largest communication service provider (CSP). It had a customer base of 90 million as of June 2008. It has footprints throughout India except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai
and New Delhi
, which are managed by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL).
The corporation remains heavily unionised and is comparatively slow in decision making and its implementation, which largely acts at the instances of unions without bothering about outcome. Management has been reactive to the schemes of private telecom players.
Though it offers services at lowest tariffs, the private players continue to notch up better numbers in all areas, years after year. BSNL has been providing connections in both urban and rural areas. Pre-activated Mobile connections are available at many places across India. BSNL has also unveiled cost-effective broadband internet access plans (DataOne) targeted at homes and small businesses. At present BSNL enjoy's around 60% of market share of ISP services.
2007 was declared as "Year of Broadband" in India and BSNL announced plans for providing 5 million broadband connectivity by the end of 2007. BSNL upgraded Dataone connections for a speed of up to 2 Mbit/s without any extra cost. This 2 Mbit/s broadband service was provided by BSNL at a cost of just US$ 11.7 per month (as of 21 July 2008 and at a limit of 2.5GB monthly limit with 0200-0800 hrs as no charge period). Further, BSNL is rolling out new broadband services such as triple play
.
BSNL planned to increase its customer base to 108 million customers by 2010. With the frantic activity in the communication sector in India, the target appears achievable.
BSNL is a pioneer of rural telephony in India. BSNL has recently bagged 80% of US$ 580 m (INR 2,500 crores) Rural Telephony project of Government of India.
On 20 March 2009 BSNL advertised the launch of BlackBerry
services across its Telecom circles in India. The corporation has also launched 3G services in select cities across the country. Presently, BSNL and MTNL are the only players to provide 3G services, as the Government of India has completed auction of 3G services for private players. BSNL shall get 3G bandwidth at lowest bidder prices of Rs 18,500 crore, which includes Rs 10,186 crore for 3G and Rs 8313crore for BWA.[
is standing at a customer base of 62.3 million. However, despite impressive growth shown by BSNL in recent times, the Fixed line customer base of BSNL is declining. In order to woo back its fixed-line customers BSNL has brought down long distance calling rate under OneIndia plan, however, the success of the scheme is not known. However, BSNL faces bleak fiscal 2009-2010 as users flee
Presently there is an intense competition in Indian Telecom sector and various Telcos are rolling out attractive schemes and are providing good customer services.
Access Deficit Charges (ADC, a levy being paid by the private operators to BSNL for provide service in non-lucrative areas especially rural areas) has been slashed by 20% by TRAI
, w.e.f. April 1, 2009. The reduction in ADC may hit the bottomlines of BSNL.
BSNL has started 3G services in 290 cities and acquired more than 6 Lakh customers. It has planned to roll out 3G services in 760 cities across the country in 2010-11.
Broadband services : The shift in demand from voice to data has revolutionized the very nature of the network. BSNL is poised to cash on this opportunity and has planned for extensive expansion of the Broadband services. The Broadband customer base of 3.56 Million customer in March'2009 is planned to be increased to 16.00 million by March 2014.
Now bsnl is the under top five telecom service provider company in India.
when compared to other telecom companies the quality of employees are not satisfactory.customer oriented,management skills are also poor,the influenece of unions in the organisation will also affect the future of bsnl
Another major crisis that may hit BSNL from Nov 2011 is due to repatriation of its 1800 strong highly skilled senior and top managers of Indian Telecom Service(ITS) officers to DOT. This may dent the company irrevocably and further deteriorate its functioning and top and bottom lines.
Another major crisis that may hit BSNL is due to repatriation of its 1800 strong highly skilled senior and top managers of Indian Telecom Service(ITS) officers to DOT. This may dent the company irrevocably and further deteriorate its functioning and both top and bottom lines.bvnb
and Mumbai
. Both these state-owned operators were given a head start by the government in the 3G space by allotting the required 3G spectrum, on the condition that each will have to pay an amount which will be equivalent to the highest bid in the respective service areas as and when the 3G auctions take place.
As of now BSNL has 3G services in 826 cities across India. The following is a list of BSNL 3G enabled towns/cities. This list covers only BSNL 3G services provided through HSDPA
/HSUPA
and HSPA+
for GSM subscribers and not EVDO for CDMA subscribers.
Note: This list may not be complete as new towns/cities are added regularly.
published by Trust Research Advisory ranked BSNL in the 65th position of the list of Most Trusted brands.
, Airtel Cheers Mobile, Idea
, Loop Mobile
, MTNL, MTS, Ping Mobile, Reliance Communications
, S Tel
, Tata DoCoMo
, Tata Indicom
, Uninor
, Videocon, Virgin Mobile
and Vodafone
.
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
. It is the largest provider of fixed telephony
Telephony
In telecommunications, telephony encompasses the general use of equipment to provide communication over distances, specifically by connecting telephones to each other....
and fourth largest mobile telephony
Mobile telephony
Mobile telephony is the provision of telephone services to phones which may move around freely rather than stay fixed in one location. Mobile phones connect to a terrestrial cellular network of base stations , whereas satellite phones connect to orbiting satellites...
provider in India, and is also a provider of broadband
Broadband Internet access
Broadband Internet access, often shortened to just "broadband", is a high data rate, low-latency connection to the Internet— typically contrasted with dial-up access using a 56 kbit/s modem or satellite Internet with inherently high latency....
services. However, in recent years the company's revenue and market share plunged into heavy losses due to intense competition in Indian telecommunications sector.
BSNL is India's oldest and largest communication service provider (CSP). It had a customer base of 90 million as of June 2008. It has footprints throughout India except for the metropolitan cities of Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
and New Delhi
New Delhi
New Delhi is the capital city of India. It serves as the centre of the Government of India and the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi. New Delhi is situated within the metropolis of Delhi. It is one of the nine districts of Delhi Union Territory. The total area of the city is...
, which are managed by Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL).
Services
BSNL provides almost every telecom service in India. Following are the main telecom services provided by BSNL:- Universal Telecom Services : Fixed wireline services and landline in local loop (WLL) using CDMA Technology called bfone and Tarang respectively. As of June 30, 2010, BSNL had 75% marketshare of fixed lines.
- Cellular Mobile Telephone Services: BSNL is major provider of Cellular Mobile Telephone services using GSM platform under the brand name Cellone & Excel (BSNL Mobile). As of June 30, 2010 BSNL has 13.50% share of mobile telephony in the country.
- WLL-CDMA Telephone Services: BSNL's WLL (Wireless in Local Loop)service is a service giving both fixed line telephony & Mobile telephony.
- Internet: BSNL provides Internet accessInternet accessMany technologies and service plans for Internet access allow customers to connect to the Internet.Consumer use first became popular through dial-up connections in the 20th century....
services through dial-up connection (as Sancharnet through 2009) as Prepaid, (NetOne) as Postpaid and ADSL broadband (BSNL Broadband). BSNL held 55.76% of the market share with reported subscriber base of 9.19 million Internet subscribers with 7.79% of growth at the end of March 2010. Top 12 Dial-up Service providers, based on the subscriber base, It Also Provides OnlineGamesGameA game is structured playing, usually undertaken for enjoyment and sometimes used as an educational tool. Games are distinct from work, which is usually carried out for remuneration, and from art, which is more often an expression of aesthetic or ideological elements...
via Its Games on Demand (GOD)
- Intelligent Network (IN): BSNL offers value-added services, such as Free Phone Service (FPH), India Telephone Card (Prepaid card), Account Card Calling (ACC), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Tele-voting, Premium Rae Service (PRM), Universal Access Number (UAN).
- 3G:BSNL offers the '3G' or the'3rd Generation' services which includes facilities like video calling,mobile broadband, live TV, 3G Video portal, streaming services like online full length movies and video on demand etc.
- IPTV:BSNL also offers the 'Internet Protocol Television' facility which enables watch television through internet.
- FTTH:Fibre To The Home facility that offers a higher bandwidth for data transfer. This idea was proposed on post-December 2009.
- Helpdesk: BSNL's Helpdesk (Helpdesk) provide help desk support to their customers for their services.
- VVoIP: BSNL, along with Sai Infosystem - an Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) provider - has launched Voice and Video Over Internet Protocol (VVoIP). This will allow to make audio as well as video calls to any landline, mobile, or IP phone anywhere in the world, provided that the requisite video phone equipment is available at both ends.
- WiMax: BSNL has introduced India's first 4th Generation High-Speed Wireless Broadband Access Technology with the minimum speed of 256kbps. The focus of this service is mainly rural customer where the wired broadband facility is not available.
Administrative units
BSNL is divided into a number of administrative units termed as telecom circles, metro districts, project circles and specialized units, as mentioned below:Telecom Circles in India
- Andaman & Nicobar Telecom Circle
- Dobaspet
- Tamil Nadu Telecom Circle
- Jharkhand Telecom Circle
- Bihar Telecom Circle
- Andhra Pradesh Telecom Circle
- Assam Telecom Circle
- Chhattisgarh Telecom Circle
- Gujarat Telecom Circle
- Haryana Telecom Circle
- Himachal Pradesh Telecom Circle
- Jammu & Kashmir Telecom Circle
- Jharkhand Telecom Circle
- Karnataka Telecom Circle
- Kerala Telecom Circle
- Madhya Pradesh Telecom Circle
- Maharashtra Telecom Circle
- North East-I Telecom Circle
- North East-II Telecom Circle
- Orissa Telecom Circle
- Punjab Telecom Circle
- Rajasthan Telecom Circle
- Uttranchal Telecom Circle
- Uttar Pradesh East Telecom Circle
- Uttar Pradesh West Telecom Circle
- West Bengal Telecom Circle
Project Circles
- Eastern Telecom Project Circle
- Western Telecom Project Circle
- Northern Telecom Project Circle
- Southern Telecom Project Circle
- IT Project Circle, Pune
Maintenance Region
- Eastern Telecom Region
- Western Telecom Region
- Northern Telecom Region
- Southern Telecom Region
Production Units
- Telecom Factory, Mumbai
- Telecom Factory, Jabalpur
- Telecom Factory, Richhai
- Telecom Factory, Kolkata
- Telecom Factory,Noida
History
BSNL then known as the Department of Telecommunications had been a near monopoly during the socialist period of the Indian economy. During this period, BSNL was the only telecom service provider in the country. MTNL was present only in Mumbai and New Delhi. During this period BSNL operated as a typical state-run organization, inefficient, slow, bureaucratic, and heavily unionised. As a result subscribers had to wait for as long as five years to get a telephone connection. The corporation tasted competition for the first time after the liberalisation of Indian economy in 1991. Faced with stiff competition from the private telecom service providers, BSNL has subsequently tried to increase efficiencies itself. DoT veterans, however, put the onus for the sorry state of affairs on the Government policies, where in all state-owned service providers were required to function as mediums for achieving egalitarian growth across all segments of the society. The corporation (then DoT), however, failed to achieve this and India languished among the most poorly connected countries in the world. BSNL was born in 2000 after the corporatisation of DoT. The efficiency of the company has since improved, however, the performance level is nowhere near the private players.The corporation remains heavily unionised and is comparatively slow in decision making and its implementation, which largely acts at the instances of unions without bothering about outcome. Management has been reactive to the schemes of private telecom players.
Though it offers services at lowest tariffs, the private players continue to notch up better numbers in all areas, years after year. BSNL has been providing connections in both urban and rural areas. Pre-activated Mobile connections are available at many places across India. BSNL has also unveiled cost-effective broadband internet access plans (DataOne) targeted at homes and small businesses. At present BSNL enjoy's around 60% of market share of ISP services.
Triple play (telecommunications)
In telecommunications, triple play service is a marketing term for the provisioning of two bandwidth-intensive services, high-speed Internet access and television, and a less bandwidth-demanding service, telephone, over a single broadband connection. Triple play focuses on a combined business...
.
BSNL planned to increase its customer base to 108 million customers by 2010. With the frantic activity in the communication sector in India, the target appears achievable.
BSNL is a pioneer of rural telephony in India. BSNL has recently bagged 80% of US$ 580 m (INR 2,500 crores) Rural Telephony project of Government of India.
On 20 March 2009 BSNL advertised the launch of BlackBerry
BlackBerry
BlackBerry is a line of mobile email and smartphone devices developed and designed by Canadian company Research In Motion since 1999.BlackBerry devices are smartphones, designed to function as personal digital assistants, portable media players, internet browsers, gaming devices, and much more...
services across its Telecom circles in India. The corporation has also launched 3G services in select cities across the country. Presently, BSNL and MTNL are the only players to provide 3G services, as the Government of India has completed auction of 3G services for private players. BSNL shall get 3G bandwidth at lowest bidder prices of Rs 18,500 crore, which includes Rs 10,186 crore for 3G and Rs 8313crore for BWA.[
Challenges
During the financial year 2008-2009 (from April 1, 2008 to March 31, 2009) BSNL has added 8.1 million new customers in various telephone services taking its customer base to 75.9 million. BSNL's nearest competitor Bharti AirtelBharti Airtel
Bharti Airtel Limited , commonly known as Airtel, is an Indian telecommunications company that operates in 20 countries across South Asia, Africa and the Channel Islands. It operates a GSM network in all countries, providing 2G or 3G services depending upon the country of operation...
is standing at a customer base of 62.3 million. However, despite impressive growth shown by BSNL in recent times, the Fixed line customer base of BSNL is declining. In order to woo back its fixed-line customers BSNL has brought down long distance calling rate under OneIndia plan, however, the success of the scheme is not known. However, BSNL faces bleak fiscal 2009-2010 as users flee
Presently there is an intense competition in Indian Telecom sector and various Telcos are rolling out attractive schemes and are providing good customer services.
Access Deficit Charges (ADC, a levy being paid by the private operators to BSNL for provide service in non-lucrative areas especially rural areas) has been slashed by 20% by TRAI
TRAI
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India is the independent regulator of the telecommunications business in India. -History:...
, w.e.f. April 1, 2009. The reduction in ADC may hit the bottomlines of BSNL.
BSNL has started 3G services in 290 cities and acquired more than 6 Lakh customers. It has planned to roll out 3G services in 760 cities across the country in 2010-11.
Broadband services : The shift in demand from voice to data has revolutionized the very nature of the network. BSNL is poised to cash on this opportunity and has planned for extensive expansion of the Broadband services. The Broadband customer base of 3.56 Million customer in March'2009 is planned to be increased to 16.00 million by March 2014.
Now bsnl is the under top five telecom service provider company in India.
when compared to other telecom companies the quality of employees are not satisfactory.customer oriented,management skills are also poor,the influenece of unions in the organisation will also affect the future of bsnl
Another major crisis that may hit BSNL from Nov 2011 is due to repatriation of its 1800 strong highly skilled senior and top managers of Indian Telecom Service(ITS) officers to DOT. This may dent the company irrevocably and further deteriorate its functioning and top and bottom lines.
BSNL - MTNL Merger Plans
On February 23, 2011, The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said it wanted to revive a proposal for the merger of state-owned operators BSNL and MTNL. In its draft plan, the department while showing concern over the deteriorating performance of BSNL and MTNL said that BSNL and MTNL should be merged as they have complimentary operations and can combine their strengths for synergies. DoT said the government should set up a multi-stakeholder committee to develop a restructuring plan for both firms. The committee should have members from public enterprises, the DoT, department of IT and ministry of finance. However the BSNL's staff unions are opposing this merger tooth and nail realising that MTNL is in dire state and need help of its big brother ,BSNL,to alleviate itself from getting into red balance sheet.MTNL in spite of having its operations in two big metro cities viz.New Delhi & Mumbai is realising cascading fall in revenue and profits for the past 10 successive years.The telecommunication operators should focus on enterprise business, services to government and the public sector, value-added services and technologies like 3G, the department recommends.Another major crisis that may hit BSNL is due to repatriation of its 1800 strong highly skilled senior and top managers of Indian Telecom Service(ITS) officers to DOT. This may dent the company irrevocably and further deteriorate its functioning and both top and bottom lines.bvnb
3G
While it did not participate in the 3G auction, BSNL paid the Indian government Rs. 10,187 crores for 3G spectrum in all 20 circles it operates in. State-owned MTNL provides 3G services in the other 2 circles - DelhiDelhi
Delhi , officially National Capital Territory of Delhi , is the largest metropolis by area and the second-largest by population in India, next to Mumbai. It is the eighth largest metropolis in the world by population with 16,753,265 inhabitants in the Territory at the 2011 Census...
and Mumbai
Mumbai
Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay in English, is the capital of the Indian state of Maharashtra. It is the most populous city in India, and the fourth most populous city in the world, with a total metropolitan area population of approximately 20.5 million...
. Both these state-owned operators were given a head start by the government in the 3G space by allotting the required 3G spectrum, on the condition that each will have to pay an amount which will be equivalent to the highest bid in the respective service areas as and when the 3G auctions take place.
3G Coverage
BSNL has the largest 3G network in India. Additionally, BSNL 3G services usually cover not only the main town/city but also the adjoining suburbs and rural areas as well.As of now BSNL has 3G services in 826 cities across India. The following is a list of BSNL 3G enabled towns/cities. This list covers only BSNL 3G services provided through HSDPA
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access
High-Speed Downlink Packet Access is an enhanced 3G mobile telephony communications protocol in the High-Speed Packet Access family, also dubbed 3.5G, 3G+ or turbo 3G, which allows networks based on Universal Mobile Telecommunications System to have higher data transfer speeds and capacity...
/HSUPA
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access
High-Speed Uplink Packet Access is a 3G mobile telephony protocol in the HSPA family with up-link speeds up to 5.76 Mbit/s. The name HSUPA was created by Nokia...
and HSPA+
Evolved HSPA
HSPA+, or Evolved High-Speed Packet Access, is a technical standard for wireless, broadband telecommunication. HSPA+ was first defined in the technical standard 3GPP release 7....
for GSM subscribers and not EVDO for CDMA subscribers.
Note: This list may not be complete as new towns/cities are added regularly.
Recognitions
The Brand Trust ReportThe Brand Trust Report
The Brand Trust Report, India Study, 2011 is published by Trust Research Advisory . The book is a result of a syndicated primary research on Brand Trust that generated 10,00,000 data points and 16,000 unique brands from over 10,000 hours of fieldwork conducted in 9 cities TRA’s study partners in...
published by Trust Research Advisory ranked BSNL in the 65th position of the list of Most Trusted brands.
Competitors
BSNL competes with 14 other mobile operators throughout India. They are AircelAircel
Aircel group is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage throughout India. The Aircel group is a joint venture between Maxis Communications Berhad of Malaysia and Sindya Securities & Investments Private Limited, whose current...
, Airtel Cheers Mobile, Idea
Idea cellular
Idea Cellular, usually referred to as Idea, is an Indian wireless telecom company based in Mumbai, India. Idea is the 3rd largest mobile services operator in India, in revenue terms, and recorded of over 98.4 million customers as of August 2011....
, Loop Mobile
Loop Mobile India
Loop Mobile , usually referred to as LOOP is a mobile phone service provider in India. It offers both prepaid and postpaid GSM cellular phone coverage in Assam, Kolkata, North East, Mumbai, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan after receiving a license to operate across 21 telecom...
, MTNL, MTS, Ping Mobile, Reliance Communications
Reliance Communications
Reliance Communications Ltd. is an Indian broadband and telecommunications company headquartered in Navi Mumbai, India. RCOM is the world's 16th largest mobile phone operator with over 144 million subscribers. Established on 2004, a subsidiary of the Reliance Group...
, S Tel
S Tel
S Tel Private Limited is a GSM based cellular operator in India. It has a unified services access license in Orissa, Bihar, Himachal Pradesh, North East, Assam and Jammu & Kashmir...
, Tata DoCoMo
Tata DoCoMo
TATA DoCoMo, referred to as DoCoMo , is a Tata Teleservices Limited owned cellular service provider on the GSM and CDMA platform-arising out of the Tata Group's strategic joint venture with Japanese telecom giant NTT Docomo in November 2008...
, Tata Indicom
Tata Indicom
Tata Teleservices Limited is a Indian broadband and telecommunications provider based in Mumbai, India. It is a subsidiary of the Tata Group, an Indian conglomerate...
, Uninor
Uninor
Uninor is a mobile operator in India. The company holds Unified Access Service licences to offer mobile telephony services in each of India’s 22 telecom circles, and has received spectrum to roll out services in 21 of these...
, Videocon, Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile India
Virgin Mobile India Limited is a cellular telephone service provider company which is a joint venture between Tata Teleservices and Richard Branson's Virgin Group. Currently, the company uses Tata's CDMA network to offer its services under the brand name Virgin Mobile, and it has also started GSM...
and Vodafone
Vodafone Essar
Vodafone Essar, formerly Hutchison Essar, is a cellular operator in India that covers 23 telecom circles in India. It is based in Mumbai. On July 2011, Vodafone Group agreed terms for the buy-out of its partner Essar from its Indian mobile phone business. The UK firm paid $5.46 billion to its...
.
Quality of Service
Bangalore Telecom goes by the motto http://www.bangaloretelecom.com/quality.htm and displays the same in their homepage.See also
- SancharnetSancharnetSancharnet refers to the dial up Internet connection provided by BSNL, government owned communication service provider in India....
- BSNL BroadbandBSNL BroadbandBSNL Broadband is an Internet access service from state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited available in India since 14 January 2005. Until 30 September 2007 it was known as Data One....
- Bsnl MobileCellOneCellOne now Bsnl mobile was a mobile phone service provided by the Indian public enterprise BSNL.It provides pre-paid and post-paid mobile services as well as many value added services....