Talks still on for roll out of tower business: BSNL CMD

Talks involving BSNL management, its employees union and government were still on over the proposed formation of a new company for handling the public sector telecom major's mobile towers, a top official said today.
"Right now, the talks are going on. What we are looking at is about a separate company that will take care of the tower business..," Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava told reporters here.
Speaking after unveiling free call plan at Rs 144 for its customers across the country, he said BSNL employees had reservations over the proposal to float a new company to manage the mobile towers.

"The apprehension of the employees is that it should not be run as a private company. The BSNL, including the Board and CMD, should hold control. We are discussing about it with the Government," he added.
The union cabinet had last year given its nod for hiving off the state-owned firm's tower business into a new company in a bid to revive its flagging fortunes.
BSNL mobile tower assets consist of about 64,500 towers and more than 50,000 tower sites have optical fibre cable connectivity.

On the company financials Shrivastava said, "our profits declined to Rs 691 crore in 2013-14. In 2014-15, EBITDA (Earnings

Before Interest Tax, Depreciation and Amortization) which was at Rs 672 crore jumped to Rs 3,855 crore in financial year 2015-16".
"For this year we are looking at EBITDA of Rs 4,500 crore. By 2018-19, BSNL will come back to report net profits", he said.
Noting that the telecom industry was "highly competitive", he said, the roll out of Jio telecom service by (Mukesh Ambani led) Reliance posed a "challenge" to every telecom operator, including BSNL.
As people were talking about Jio, the services of BSNL was also discussed and plans like Rs 149 and Rs 249 had been launched.

BSNL had been adding nearly 1.50 lakh new connections every month across the country in its network and lined up investments of Rs 4,800 crore for 2016-17, he said.
"For this year we will be investing Rs 4,800 crore. This will be met with our own resources. Another Rs 4,800 crore will be invested on behalf of Government of India for upgrading mobile capacity, connecting Andaman and Nicobar Islands through optical fibre", he said.