Expressing concern over the dwindling market share of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) in the mobile segment, Communications and IT Minister A Raja today asked public sector entity to work on tapping the rural markets to shore up their profits.
According to a PIB release, Raja told a meeting of the heads of the BSNL circle officers that country’s rural tele-density at 11 per cent was much lower than 30 per cent rural density and bridging this digital divide was a challenge and also an opportunity for them.
Asking the managers to form new strategies on the growth of BSNL’s market share, he advised them to concentrate on cellular and broadband services.The minister hoped that BSNL will continue to contribute more than 50% in achieving a national target of 20 million broadband connections by 2010.
Raja asked the officers to pay urgent attention to quality of service, customer care and quick response to the needs of customers in order to beat the fresh challenges which are likely to arise out of the impending launch of Number Portability.
Further he called for more intelligent financial management for better profit margins, keeping down the costs, efficient utilization of capital assets, increasing revenue through sharing of infrastructure and reduction of outstanding dues.
On the manpower front, Raja said the officials need to be imparted special training in customer care and skills. Besides, he said the BSNL could improve the value added services (VAS) to meet customer’s aspirations and increase revenue.
He called upon BSNL to ensure immediate rollout of 3G and WI-MAX services based on the spectrum already allocated to it by the government.
India’s telecom network has more than 340 million telephones. 43.37 million connections have been provided in just five months during the current year.