BSNL plans 3G upgrade in 12 major UP cities: H R Shukla

Interview with Chief General Manager UP (East) Circle, BSNL

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) offers both fixed telephone line and mobile phone services in UP. BSNL Chief General Manager UP (East) Circle H R Shukla discusses the company's growth plans in UP with Virendra Singh Rawat. Edited excerpts:

BSNL has been upgrading its 3G infrastructure in UP East Circle. What is the progress so far?

BSNL 3G services have been working at all district headquarters and other major towns of UP (East) Circle since 2009. Under Phase VII Project, the expansion/upgradation of 3G services was planned in 2012, wherein 3G services were upgraded using ZTE equipment which is the latest technology offering higher data speed (of up to 21 mbps). This upgradation has been carried out in six cities - Unnao, Sitapur, Lucknow, Varanasi (including Mughal Sarai), Kanpur and Ballia - using 850 Node-B of ZTE make, and all these networks are IP-based networks. Due to this upgradation, BSNL data services have improved and data traffic has increased tremendously.

Besides, an exercise has been undertaken to migrate existing Node-Bs on IP media in order to improve data speed. So far, about 500 Ericsson Node-Bs have been migrated on IP media. About 518 Ericsson Node-Bs are being deployed to expand the 3G coverage of existing cities and cover additional towns and areas.

BSNL 3G services are now available in around 180 cities and towns of UP (East) Circle. Further, even in semi-rural areas additional 800 ZTE Node-B have been ordered. With this equipment, upgradation of 3G services in 12 major cities of the state is planned.

Is there a proposal to provide free wi-fi infrastructure? What are the future plans in this regard?

The wi-fi hotspot has started in Varanasi Ghats (seven spots) and Sarnath (two spots). Further, at 57 public places, work has been assigned to our partner, of which 10 sites installations are presently being done. Seventy more sites have been identified and surveys for viability and technical suitability are to be conducted soon.

Call drops and network congestion have afflicted all mobile phone operators in India. How is BSNL coping with the issue to provide seamless services to subscribers?

Regular Drive Test and optimisation tuning is being done. BSNL is also planning to install more BTSs at important locations to cover these few call drop areas. From April 2016 onwards, BSNL is going to replace old BTSs, which were installed in phase III. The new equipment will help combat call drops to a great extent and also increase network availability.

UP (East) is one of the largest telecom circles in India. What is the current subscriber base of BSNL in the circle and share in total revenues?

The current GSM subscriber base of UP (East) Circle is almost 8.76 million. The revenue of BSNL in the circle was about Rs 682 crore for the previous financial year until February 2016, of the total revenue of Rs 8,903 crore of all telecom service providers in UP (East), including BSNL. The revenue and network share of BSNL in the circle are about eight per cent and 11 per cent respectively.

The fixed telephone segment has been gradually losing out to mobile telephony. How does BSNL plan to sustain growth in both segments?

With a popular scheme like 'Saari Raat Muft Baat', which offers free calls between 9 pm and 7 am, the demand in landlines has been gradually increasing. We have issued 25 per cent more landline and broadband connections in 2015-16 compared to 2014-15. In the combined landline and broadband segment, overall five per cent positive revenue growth has been achieved. The marketing section has taken various steps to popularise the scheme and steps are being taken to make this service available in newly developed and developing areas of Lucknow and other places.

Mobile wallets and mobile e-commerce are growing fast in the country. What is their level of penetration in UP?

BSNL is making all efforts to utilise these services by taking initiatives in promotions and tie-ups with various service providers. Recently, BSNL signed an agreement with SBI to launch the BSNL-SBI-M-wallet project, and BSNL has signed a tripartite agreement with Andhra Bank and Pyro Networks for the provision of BSNL-Andhra Bank M-Wallet/Prepaid Card project. Also, a two-party agreement has been signed with Pyro Networks for commercials.

The impact of the penetration of these services will continue, and this will help in raising BSNL's revenues. At present BSNL apps are available to customers for online payment of bills, as well as a facility for recharge/top-up by the customer himself. For promoting these services, existing data customers will be educated in using such upcoming applications. However, the mobile e-commerce facility is inbuilt and can be used by all customers having data/internet facility on their smartphones/electronic gadgets.

Are there any new initiatives in the offing to provide more value-added services to BSNL subscribers?

BSNL has already forged tie-ups with almost all types of value added service providers to offer unique applications like MOBILE TV/PRBT/STK (SIM tool KIT) having features like astrology, cricket, Bollywood, travel, entertainment, finance, news, TV schedules, downloads, chats, jokes, 'shayari', health, comics and share market.