Team-BHP - BSNL begins to bleed

We have had many customers move away from their shoddy service to airtel, reliance, tata.. What exactly has gone wrong with bsnl? Kindly check this link:

BSNL begins to bleed, sees a loss of Rs 2,611 cr in FY10 - The Economic Times - Yahoo! Buzz India

We used to have BSNL landline connection in our home in Kerala. Every now and then, the telephone used to go out of order. There was constant disturbance in the line, due to which dialup connection was extremely slow. We complained and complained. No use.

Meanwhile Reliance came up with WLL phones. We took one. The range was low, they came and installed an external antenna. The sound quality was excellent. It had built in modem for internet. It was costlier than the BSNL landline.

The last time, a couple of years back, the BSNL phone went dead for more than a week, my father got so angry that he cancelled the BSNL connection.

bureaucracy is at it again. The telecom sector is such a cut throat industry that a company like BSNL will not survive competing with the likes of Tatas and Bharti's. A. Raja needs to be stripped down from his post. God knows why people with no previous background are even allowed to take such positions in the government. Knee deep in the 2G scam wasn't a hint enough.

IMO there needs to be a stake sale or a full buyout here to save the company. Make things private and see the diference.

On a a different note. Whenever i hear "BSNL" i picture my dad running to the nearest window hoping to get some signal. lol:

Lousy BSNL babus are to blame for all this, people dont have accountability and treat there jobs a government job hence in BSNL nothing moves easily. Hence they are like sitting ducks which is shot down by our private companies.

My Dad used to struggle with the BSNL Mobile he was using for over 5 years. Never he could answer any calls sitting inside the house due to poor signal and most of the times his mobile number used to be 'not reachable'. They deserve these losses IMO.

After all the frustration, now he is Vodafone subscriber!

Quote:

Originally Posted by adityamunshi (Post 1839406)

Im quite happy with the BSNL landline and broadband services in Baroda. There has been a slow but constant improvement in the customer support and service quality.

We also have been quite happy with BSNL landline and broadband service.
We use to have problem of internet getting disconnected frequently, after a couple of troubleshooting suggestions from BSNL technical guy they came and change the modem and now it is working very good.

Not bad after all for meager 500 rupees a month.

Guys, i agree that BSNL is not "managed" properly to fully utilize their infrastructure. Imagine, even now many places, the background is through the BSNL cables for other private operators. I doubt if someone is tieing the hands of BSNL from performing :)

Quote:

BSNL’s initial tender for 63 million Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) in 2006 was slashed to 12 million by telecoms minister A Raja. Its follow-on tender for 93 million GSM lines, the world’s largest equipment order, was cancelled after a series of controversies, even as rivals such as Bharti, Reliance Communications and the Tatas expanded to feed the expanding customer base.

Btw, the loss is not just because the customers went away. See this

Quote:

The loss has been precipitated by a salary revision, effective 2007, where arrears have to be paid till March 2010. the revision added to its cost by Rs 3,800 crore .

Quote:

The Pitroda panel, which had banker Deepak Parekh and the telecom secretary PJ Thomas as members, suggested a strategic stake sale, cut the 3 lakh staff by a third, and sell 30% of the company in an initial share sale.

With the trade unions opposing job cuts and share sale, the government abandoning stake sale as a policy, the committee’s views may just remain on paper.

Here in lies the problem. Like any government company, it is overstaffed madly. They needed to trim the employee list by 1 lakh, but unions won't allow it. That means the company itself will sink. However, it being a government company we tax payers will have to bail out the company and keep the 3 lakhs employees securely in their jobs.

As per BSNL employees, the downfall is mainly due to executive management of BSNL, which is hand-in-glove with private Telecom operators. Same goes with the decision making politicians. There has been intentional delay in upgrading the infrastructure, which is forcing customers to look at alternatives.

We are using BSNL for over 20 years now, and I see that they are steadily improving. Their service quality is not the best, but it's still consistent. These days, even if the landline does not work for couple of days, it doesn't pinch hard due to cell phones. 3 of my friends are using BSNL DataOne since last 4-5 years with absolutely no hiccups. And if you are not in urban area, BSNL is still the only option available.

People started realizing value of nationalized banks such as SBI, BoI only after they had nightmares dealing with private banks like ICICI. People got back to State Transport buses only after they got fed up with unreliable services of private bus operators (with notable exceptions). Same goes here with BSNL. You need a strong credible government backed neutralizer to keep these private players in check.

Until and unless BSNL become customer centric they are doomed.
On one hand the BSNL Broadbacnd is totally choked from 5:00pm to 9:00pm on the other hand they are trying madly to sell more connections.

On the landline voice is fine, with very few faults, but on one hand the BSNL Broadband is totally choked from 5:00pm to 9:00pm on the other hand they are trying madly to sell more connections. The connection is intermittent in the best of times.

I have a BSNL mobile as well, and regularly download and deposit my bills in the drop box typically 10 days before the due date. They take ages to clear the box and credit the money. As a result every two to three months they bill me for late payment. Letters go unanswered. Why I am keeping it is becaluse of two reasons, you go into any village BSNL works (congestion etc are purely urban problems) and until number portaility comes it is too much work to change my number.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgiitk (Post 1839717)

I have a BSNL mobile as well, and regularly download and deposit my bills in the drop box typically 10 days before the due date. They take ages to clear the box and credit the money. As a result every two to three months they bill me for late payment.

How about online payment with your favourite net-banking? I've registered mine around 4-5 years back and it has never failed me since then.

EDIT: I don't know if that works for BSNL mobile, since I don't have one. Wild guess is that it should work.

Quote:

Originally Posted by sgiitk (Post 1839717)

Until and unless BSNL become customer centric they are doomed.

True

Quote:

On one hand the BSNL Broadbacnd is totally choked from 5:00pm to 9:00pm on the other hand they are trying madly to sell more connections.

The connection is slow but not a bother during those timings

Quote:

Why I am keeping it is becaluse of two reasons, you go into any village BSNL works (congestion etc are purely urban problems) and until number portaility comes it is too much work to change my number.

same here

^^Reliance cdma is working okay too