BSNL renews focus on landline

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Plans to invest Rs 1,000 cr; to implement call data system for automated billing, identifying faults, monitoring biz.

Ailing public sector telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) plans to invest Rs 800-1,000 crore to revive its landline business. For this, it is in the process of implementing a call data record (CDR) system that would enable automated billing, identification of faults and monitoring of its entire wireline business.

This is part of a renewed focus on its landline business to increase the broadband subscriber base. The broadband market is expected to grow significantly with internet revolution along with 3G data cards. BSNL is also offering CDMA-based EVDO services and Wimax services in rural areas.

The company, which operates in all areas of the country, barring Delhi and Mumbai, also plans to set up a call centre to address all customer queries.

Currently, it offers an interactive voice response system to its landline users for any enquiry. “After the mobile revolution, growth in landline phones had stagnated. We are now bringing our landline business back in focus, to improve our broadband penetration. We are in an advanced stage of implementation of CDR for landline business. There will be a self-care portal through which customers can see and print bills and also make payments online,” a senior BSNL official told Business Standard.

“The CDR system will give a big relief to our customers with regard to all the billing issues,” the official added. Its implementation has already started and will be completed soon. The call accounting software is generally used for retrieving and processing CDR data. It can be called a billing support system, in which the price of the call will be calculated. It also provides information on faulty calls.

The total wireline subscriber base at the end of July stood at 34.18 million, in which BSNL and MTNL had over 82 per cent market share. However, the landline market is on a decline for some time. State-run MTNL provides telecom services in Delhi and Mumbai.

Apart from focusing on landline business, BSNL has set its eyes on enterprise business. It also plans to offer voluntary retirement to about 100,000 of its employees. The public sector company has an employee base of about 280,000 and is struggling to survive because of high employee cost, declining revenues and low tariffs. BSNL’s biggest problem is that 49 per cent of its revenue goes towards staff salary.

For the first time since its inception in 2000, BSNL posted a loss of Rs 1,823 crore in 2009-10 and Rs 6,000 crore in 2010-11, on account of staff salary and payout for acquiring 3G and BWA spectrum. As part of its turnaround plan, expected to happen over the next two years, BSNL has already given targets to all circle heads to increase revenues by about 15 per cent in the current financial year.

Besides, it has also started leasing out its telecom towers to private service providers.