Videsh Sanchar Nigam (VSNL) plans to discontinue its loss-making telex and telegram services to overseas nations, post-privatisation.
"We would like to stop telex and telegram services since they have been making a dent on our bottomline. We know that it may not be possible in the pre-divestment regime as the company has some obligations to the Centre," officiating director K P Tiwari said.
As the government is keen to open up international long distance (ILD) telephony business, in which VSNL enjoys monopoly, to more operators, the Centre may not insist that the company offer such services after April 2002, Tiwari added.
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"We have already incurred huge losses in the past few years on account of these businesses, which was mainly because of high operational costs. Since many customers have already begun using e-mail and other methods for communication, these services have become largely idle. But we are still maintaining the network and manpower to run these services," he added.
If VSNL eventually decides to discontinue the service, domestic customers, particularly those in rural areas, will have to look for other options as VSNL is the monopoly player in international long distance telephony.
Recently, chairman and managing director S K Gupta has sounded this out to the Telecom Regulatory of Authority of India. If possible the new ILD operators in India should also continue this service.
According to analysts, this development is just the tip of an iceberg. Post-privatisation, the company may opt to stop some more services in order to focus on international calls and the internet businesses.
The revenue break-up from telegram and telex services could not be available, while over 90 per cent of VSNL's income is from ILD.