PK Purwar, Telecom News, ET Telecom

NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is expecting to increase its annual income by 20% following the commercial launch of fourth-generation or 4G services. In an interaction with ETTelecom’s Muntazir Abbas, BSNL Chairman Pravin Kumar Purwar said that the telco will place network equipment order for 50,000 sites in FY 2023, and added that the state-run telco that has a debt of Rs 3,200-crore, is posting a revenue of about Rs 17,000 crore this year. Edited excerpts.

What is the objective of Bharat Broadband Network (BBNL) into BSNL?

Government has mandated us for the operational and maintenance (O&M) work in context to improve uptime and utilisation from July 1. We have already invited a tender and conducted a pre-bid meeting with vendors for selecting a single agency to take fibre from the OLT (optical line terminal) location to customer premise and would be responsible for maintaining SLA so that network uptime gap can be reduced.

Government also wants BSNL to utilise the commercial aspect of the BharatNet network as it was formed as a special purpose vehicle (SPV). For network utilisation, only a telecom service provider like BSNL that already offers bandwidth up to the block headquarter, can serve customers in a seamless manner, and has a partner ecosystem for customer acquisition, IT support, service and network management, and expertise to handle the commercial aspect of the network.

Earlier, the public-private partnership (PPP) model was not successful as private telcos did not show much enthusiasm?

We want to fulfil the government objective, and expect that the cost to be subsidised or supported in some way. The business gaps should be fulfilled. The strengths of BSNL, channel partners and the government should be combined to make a viable business case to bring services to a common man at a reasonable cost. Since rural operations are not viable, the government should handhold us, and give viability gap funding. We’ll be sending a proposal to the government soon. To make a viable business case, we want support.

How will BSNL work going forward since BBNL has its own workforce?

BSNL will work as an executing arm of the government and ownership of assets will rest with the government. BBNL has a workforce of less than 200. We have in our proposal said that we can absorb them in BSNL and contracts will be obliged, and revenue share agreements will be honoured.

What are the vendors outstanding as of now?

We have paid the backlog. We have a capex of Rs 157-crore that we owe but to no Indian vendor. In addition we have between Rs 150-crore to 175-crore liability towards USOF projects, and are taking steps to end that too. All vendors including multinationals want to work with BSNL. We have transformed in a much better manner in the last few years despite the Covid-19 pandemic and many other challenges.

What is the debt liability on BSNL currently?

We have a debt liability of Rs 32,000-crore. Our operations are self-sustainable. We are paying Rs 2,500-crore per annum as an interest outgo.

Share an update on 4G Proof-of-Concept (PoC)?

We have conducted PoC with Tata-Tejas-C-DoT consortium on 2100 MHz spectrum, and are satisfied to a large extent. We have given an order of 6,000 sites and 400 radios on 900 MHz airwaves. We placed this order on March 31. Now the ball is in the vendor’s court.

So where will these network sites be located typically?

There will be a mix of rural and urban sites to test the network robustness across locations. We have already tested in a lab environment and now want the network to go in live conditions, and have given the order in that context. With this, we will be able to get feedback from multiple users.

What is the revenue growth you are expecting following the launch of commercial 4G services?

Further, 50,000 sites can help increase revenue which we are expecting between March 2023 and 2024. Despite no 4G, BSNL has sustained without losing much revenue and customers. A significant number of subscribers will be added once we launch 4G services. We expect revenue to increase by 15-20%.

What is the current level of your revenue?

Despite Covid-19 disruption, we are able to achieve a level of last year revenue of about Rs 17,000-crore.

How much enterprise business contributes to your overall income?

Enterprise business contributes more than 20%, and is increasing at a CAGR of 10%.

Is BSNL able to disburse timely monthly salary to its workforce?

Yes. Once we have 4G, BSNL will be a good organisation to work with. Challenges have been reduced significantly. It will take about 2 years to turn around. Post 4G network investment, we will be able to provide good services to customers.