When Tsunamai struck Cuddalore,Nagapattinam,Chennai areas, BSNL came to the rescue of the public. BSNL Cuddalore installed WLL phones immediately at Cuddalore Govt. Hospital.At the same, BSNL Cuddalore provided ISTD telephones at various sea bound villages in and around Cuddalore. At that time, BSNL earned the appreciation of all.
During Sikkim earthquake, BSNL landlines functioned to the satisfaction of the Sikkim public..
When there was a sudden cloud ourburst in Leh, BSNL acted swiftly providing communication facilities,. BSNL also airlifted towers, equipments etc.
When Thane cyclone struck in Cuddalore and Puducherry dist. some months back, BSNL alone provided services for 15 days and more when private operators shut down their services due to escalation of prices in maintaining towers as there was no electricity.. When there was scarcity of diesel,state govt. came to our rescue and allotted the required quantum of diesel to Cuddalore BSNL. BSNL towers and exchanges functioned and public praised us on those days. Even we provided free mobile charging facilities as there was no power in Cuddalore dist. for more than 10 days. We spent a lot on diesel.
Even in Uttarakhand, it is happy to note that affected victims still contact through BSNL mobiles. Some also are of the opinion that even in disasters,BSNL comes first to the people.
When BSNL is applauded in crucial times, what are the factors affecting its growth of the mammoth organisation and what are the reasons for loss?
BSNL was converted from govt. organisation to corporation. Staff were chosen based on the norms of landlines during the time of DoT. During DoT, it is our utmost duty to open telephone exchanges in rural areas , hilly mountains etc. to cater the needs of the public. There were also pressure from various quarters during DoT period to start telephone exchanges in rural areas.
Rural exchanges constitute and are loss prone to BSNL.
There are nearly 29000 exchanges with BSNL now. Nearly 28000 exchanges are maintained to provide communications to the people. When on count i..e taking into account of income from exchanges and expenditure for the maintenance of exchanges- expenditure weighs a lot than income from the exchanges.
We cannot leave exchanges unmanned so as to avoid loss due to public cry. The minimum expenditure for maintaining a telephone exchanges in terms of security, staff,electricity etc. weighs more than income from the exchanges. BSNL has to get the actual compensation for maintenance of rural exchanges from the govt. to stop loss mounting to the corporation.
To provide landlines with broadband connections, we need cables,modems etc. There is a short supply of cables and modems in various places. For getting a telephone connections, it is not good on the part of the organisation to compel the subscribers to get telephones from retail shops. It is utmost necessary on the part of the corporation to provide the necessary infrastructure like telephones,modems to the public which can be recovered from telephone bills. As road widening is a regular process in various areas throughout India,BSNL has to provide cables without any hindrance to local units for maintenance and expansion.
BSNL non executive unions and some executive unions jointly organised Customer delight month and later extended to Customer delight year provided the much needed inputs to the corporation to increase revenue and to arrest loss .With the active cooperation from the BSNL headquarters, BSNL was able to arrest the loss trend. BSNL authorities feared that the loss for 2012-13 will rise i..e to exceed Rs. 10000 crores was cut short because of the active cooperation of the staff and the management through Customer delight year.
Reduction of landlines is a global phenomenon. In many houses, landlines replace mobile phones. So BSNL has to make strategic plans how to fare in the growing mobile sectors. BSNL has to improve coverage of mobile phones by installing more towers where there is huge traffic and also where there is potential to grow. Sharing of BSNL towers with private operators where there is more potential to BSNL has to be explored.
BSNL has to concentrate to increase the revenue by adopting some new techniques.
Plans to improve broadbad speed-reduction of plan charges - cut in free calls.- so more subscribers can opt for it.
Improve prepaid broadband services i..e. for 7 days ,15 days ,30 days-nominal charges can be introduced.
Subscribers having landlines can opt for short period prepaid broadband services .There may be some plans but have to be altered to suit local conditions.
BSNL is to catch young students. Youngsters prefer Vodafone,Airtel etc. due to free availability of 3 G sims. They have plans to catch youngsters. Similarly BSNL must have plans to catch youngsters.
BSNL has to impove advertisements and marketing techniques also.
Prepaid vouchers of mimimum values like Rs. 10, Rs. 15 etc must be available in petty shops etc.
Frequent change of plans affect the customer base. We are charging for validity .There is no provision to deduct the amount from the available amount from the subscriber for extension of validity.Some subscribers fail to read the message and we lose valued customers.
There are also various moves from the govt. to instruct all public sectors to use BSNL and MTNL services. BSNL has to take up with the govt.
BSNL is in the minds of public during natural calamities. But BSNL has to plan a lot for its survival and to serve the public.
At SSA level, a special team consisting of union representatives and officials from management can be constituted apart from various official committees to get the feedback of the public and also from staff.
With the active cooperation from the staff, management etc. coupled with the good assistance from the govt. we are sure BSNL will survive all odds to serve the public at reasonable tariff in comparison with the private operators.
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