IOC, BSNL join hands to take on Reliance

Cross-selling agreement will cover 1,000 IOC outlets

Indian Oil Corporation (IOC) and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) launched a cross-marketing exercise which will cover 1,000 IOC outlets by August as part of the companies' strategy to compete with rival Reliance, which has interests in petroleum and telecommunications.

In subsequent phases, the scheme will be extended to more outlets of IOC and its subsidiary IBP.

Indian Oil retail outlets will stock and sell various BSNL products such as the pre-paid STD/ISD card, internet telephone card, internet access card and cellphone recharge coupon.

SIM cards, which are sold through channel partners and are currently in short supply, will not be sold through petrol stations initially.

In return for this, BSNL will help IOC achieve connectivity along highways and through its retail network.

As part of the exercise, the two organisations and Chennai-based eLogistics have entered into an agreement to offer low-cost real-time truck tracking facility to fleet owners using IOC fleet cards.

The tracking system will use BSNL's GSM network and require the installation of a device on trucks. The device will send SMS signals at predetermined intervals from the nearest BSNL tower.

These signals will be recorded and decoded by eLogistics' back-end application server and generate data which can be accessed and interpreted by fleet operators through a designated website.

As a result of this cross selling exercise, Indian Oil expects to generate 10 per cent additional sales at its retail outlets where the BSNL products are sold and BSNL hopes to raise the sale of its cards/coupons by as much as 25 per cent, according to the spokesmen of the two companies.