GANGTOK DISTRICT CONFERENCE HELD BEFITTINGLY.

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The Gangtok District Conference was held successfully with good participation on 02-12-2017. Com.S.K.Rai, District President controlled the proceedings. Coms. Dilip Das, Circle Vice President, A.K.Nanadan, ACS, R.K.Yadav, ACS, and T.K.Pradhan, DS, BSNLEU addressed the conference. The biennial report and audited accounts presented by the District Secretary and Treasurer were adopted after discussion.

Office berers were elected unanimously with Com.S.K.Rai (President), Lalu Rai (District Secretary) and Ramesh Rai (Treasurer)

BSNL RECHARGED- NEW STRATEGIES KEEP IT FIRMLY IN THE RACE DESPITE STIFF COMPETITION.

BSNL Recharged: New strategies keep it f...

 

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), which has long been under the weather, may finally be moving towards a much-awaited turnaround. That, at least, is what the company’s financial and operational metrics indicate. According to Anupam Srivastava, chairman and managing director, BSNL, the PSU is likely to post operating profits for the third consecutive year in 2016-17. Revenue from operations is expected to be Rs 287 billion, a marginal increase from the Rs 284 billion recorded in 2015-16. BSNL is currently computing its accounts for 2016-17. It has also managed to fend off any significant subscriber erosion threat following Reliance Jio Infocomm Limited’s (RJIL) entry into the sector last year. Interestingly, in August 2017, BSNL reported much higher subscriber additions than Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Idea Cellular. In fact, data traffic on BSNL has grown at a remarkable pace.

With its new-found confidence, the telecom PSU is taking on the increased competition in the sector  to stay in the telecom race. To this end, it has announced a slew of initiatives and partnerships across the consumer mobility, broadband, enterprise, infrastructure, 5G and internet of things (IoT) segments over the past few months. A player that has often received scathing criticism for its lax approach, BSNL has been countering the disruptive plans of RJIL and other private operators with its own lucrative tariffs. It has also joined hands with domestic handset manufacturers to come up with affordable 4G smartphones.

Road to profitability

By 2018-19, BSNL hopes to return to a profitable state, riding on the growing data demand. It is also looking to venture into new business segments to improve its top line, monetise its infrastructure assets to boost its capital and significantly cut its costs. Further, it is planning to invest Rs 60 billion in the installation of 40,000 base transceiver stations (a mix of 2G, 3G and 4G) over the next two years.

• Asset monetisation: Despite its various shortcomings, BSNL’s infrastructural strength cannot be questioned. Of the 442,000 telecom towers installed in the country, 66,000 (around 15 per cent) belong to BSNL. The operator also has the largest fibre footprint in the country. Over the past two years, the company has made concerted efforts to monetise its unused or underutilised resources, and has engaged with several operators for sharing its towers, fibre and spectrum through active/passive infrastructure sharing agreements and intra-circle roaming (ICR) deals.

“We believe in collaborative competition and that revenue sharing arrangements will benefit all operators,” says Srivastava. This strategy, which he calls “co-opetition”, is helping the operator generate additional revenues. In 2016-17, BSNL earned Rs 15 billion through active and passive telecom infrastructure sharing. It aims to double this figure to Rs 30 billion in 2017-18.

The union cabinet recently gave its approval to create an independent company dedicated to managing BSNL’s mobile towers. This will help improve the monetising potential of the towers. Operators such as Airtel and Reliance Communications have resorted to this strategy in the past. The move is expected to increase external tenancies and consequentially bring in higher revenues for BSNL’s tower subsidiary.

Besides, BSNL has plans to unlock the potential of its non-core assets to generate additional capital. It owns about 15,000 land parcels valuated at Rs 650 billion in cities such as Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi. Currently, KPMG is evaluating some of these for leasing out purposes.

• Expanding its play in the enterprise space: In the face of declining voice revenues and insignificant data profits, the enterprise segment has emerged as a key growth area for operators. Enterprises today are adopting digitisation in a big way, and are looking to partner with companies in the information and communication technology space for the deployment of solutions such as big data, cloud and IoT. Operators are striving to meet these requirements and become end-to-end communications providers for enterprises. BSNL too is strengthening its enterprise presence and expects this vertical to contribute at least 30 per cent of its overall revenues in 2017-18, up from 25 per cent at present. The operator already caters to over 20,000 business customers including some large PSUs.

Over the past two months, BSNL has entered into collaborations with several vendors for foraying into the IoT space and charting the path to 5G. It has entered into a partnership with Aeris to offer the latter’s stack of end-to-end IoT solutions to its enterprise customers. As per Deloitte, IoT is going to be the next big thing for operators in India with the segment’s market value expected to reach $9 billion by 2020. BSNL has also signed an MoU with Coriant for leveraging the 5G and IoT opportunity in India. The two companies will work together to develop 5G and IoT use cases such as rural connectivity, connected health care, industrial automation, public safety, video surveillance, energy and agriculture. In addition, it has signed agreements with ZTE and Nokia to bring 5G technology to India.

• Exploring new business opportunities: In addition to its core business of offering telecom services to users, BSNL is now exploring a host of related business opportunities to drive home additional revenues and diversify its risks. BSNL has identified the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) business as a key potential area. The MVNO business allows operators to offer voice minutes and data bandwidth to retailers in bulk for reselling. With the help of its MVNO partners, BSNL can put its underutilised network in semi-urban and rural regions to use.

Meanwhile, BSNL has collaborated with Inmarsat for offering  satellite phone services. By 2018, the operator is likely to commercially launch satellite services for private companies and individuals, and offer internet services in aircraft and ships. The operator is also participating in several tenders for smart city projects. Further, it is engaging with the state governments for rolling out Wi-Fi networks. For instance, it will install 2,266 Wi-Fi hotspots in Kerala as part of the state government’s initiative to provide free internet service in public places.

In August 2017, BSNL launched its mobile wallet, developed by MobiKwik, marking its entry into the digital payments space. The service is only available to BSNL users, who can use the wallet to make bill payments and transact on e-commerce platforms. The wallet currently claims to have over 1.5 million merchants on its network.

Recently, BSNL signed an MoU with China-based FiberHome to jointly manufacture telecom equipment and optical fibre cable at BSNL’s facilities. The agreement will bring telecom manufacturing technology and expertise to India, and enable BSNL-FiberHome to export telecom equipment to the Asia-Pacific region.

Not a smooth ride

Given the current level of activity, BSNL is clearly making aggressive attempts to turn the corner. But to say that it will emerge as one of the leading operators in the industry may be an overstatement. BSNL accounts for only 9 per cent of India’s telecom subscriber market as of end-August 2017, while about 57 per cent is held by Airtel, RJIL, Vodafone and Idea. The ongoing consolidation in the sector will result in the creation of even bigger telecom giants leaving little room for other players. Further, these companies will be more agile and dynamic than their state-run counterpart. As such, BSNL is likely to hold the fourth position in the telecom game.

So does India need a BSNL? The answer is a resounding yes, for the operator has single-handedly enabled telecom connectivity in rural and remote areas. It has undertaken several unprofitable but strategic projects of national importance such as BharatNet and telecom connectivity in left-wing extremist areas. Naxalite areas, for instance, which are solely served by BSNL, have a data consumption of around 400 GB per day. “The industry must have a PSU as it plays a balancing role in the sector. BSNL is present in every nook and corner of the country including remote areas and areas where the private sector may not be ready to enter. During natural calamities too, only BSNL’s network has worked,” adds Srivastava.

But BSNL’s bureaucratic approach has been a nagging problem that has contributed to making it a laggard in the fast-changing telecom environment. Moreover, BSNL has not been able to tap users in the two most lucrative circles in the country – Delhi and Mumbai – with its merger talks with Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited remaining in limbo. The proposed merger would also allow BSNL to get listed indirectly, in turn allowing the government to divest its stake and privatise the PSU at a later stage.

Another area of concern is the state-run operator’s diminishing wireline base. Not very long ago, BSNL enjoyed a significant market presence in the wireline broadband segment. It used to provide as little as 2 GB of monthly data through its fixed broadband plans for around Rs 500. The market, however, has turned fiercely competitive with wireless data tariffs touching a new low. Private players are offering free voice calls and about 30 GB of high speed data per month for just Rs 150, a strong enough reason for users to migrate to wireless data. Consequently, BSNL has lost several thousand fixed line subscribers. In July 2017 alone, around 160,000 landline users surrendered their connections. And in August 2017, the company lost 60,000 wired broadband connections. This will have a serious bearing on its revenues as an average mobile customer generates only Rs 100-Rs 150 per month while a landline customer generates about Rs 800.

Betting on 4G, low-cost smartphones and Wi-Fi

4G features as the centrepiece of BSNL’s future growth strategy. The operator will upgrade its existing 3G services to 4G from January 2018. While it was earlier relying on its Wi-Fi network to deliver 4G speeds, it has now decided to offer these services by utilising the spectrum that it currently uses for 3G services. The company may also offer 4G services through the broadband spectrum it acquired in 2010. Further, the operator has partnered with local handset-maker Micromax to launch a 4G voice over long term evolution (VoLTE) feature phone, Bharat One. The phone runs on an open source version of Android and has Micromax’s own browser and entertainment services such as live TV, music and videos developed in partnership with Zenga. It is priced at Rs 2,200 (a little higher than the Rs 1,500 JioPhone), and comes bundled with a Rs 97 monthly plan from BSNL under which users get unlimited voice calls and data. However, BSNL does not have 4G-VoLTE services live as yet.

Meanwhile, the operator is betting big on Wi-Fi to meet the growing data demand. To this end, it will set up 100,000 Wi-Fi hotspots across India by March 2019, including 25,000 hotspots in rural areas. The operator will invest about Rs 18 billion in setting up 70,000 Wi-Fi hotspots while another 5,000 Wi-Fi hotspots will be set up on a revenue sharing basis, wherein BSNL will not invest any capital but will provide only bandwidth. The deployment of the remaining 25,000 hotspots, which will require funds worth Rs 9 billion, will be financed by the Universal Service Obligation Fund.

Outlook

BSNL’s new-found enthusiasm is encouraging. Its data focus, early 5G initiatives and strategic collaborations reflect the new energy in the company. Its immediate tasks, however, are to maintain its market share amidst stiff competition and to turn profitable by 2018-19.

PREPARE FOR THE MASS DHARNA ON 11-12-2017 TO MAKE IT A GRAND SUCCESS.

The second phase of the agitational program decided by the Central Executive Committee held at New Delhi on 25-10-2017 is the Mass Dharna at SSA level on 11-12-2017. CHQ is aware that most of the District Branches have already started the preparations; but there are some branches still to take the initiative and in such cases, it is the responsibility of CHQ office bearers and Circle Secretaries to act appropriately. We have to mobilize maximum pensioners for the Dharna for which effective campaign of the demands is necessary. Posters, boards, banners and handouts may be prepared and exhibited/ circulated. Propaganda through print  and other medias can also be utilized.

The demands are furnished once again for ready reference.

  1. Pension revision of BSNL retirees with 15% fitment , recommended by the 3rd PRC and approved by the government, with effect from 01-01-2017.
  2. Immediate settlement of Pension revision cases of DoT retirees based on the orders dated 12-05-2017 as some of the circles are yet to start the process despite repeated directives.
  3. .Grant monthly medical allowance of Rs.2000 for out door treatment.

The date of the Dharna coincides with the death anniversary of Com.K.G.Bose, the legendary leader of the central government employees and should be suitably commemorated.

Also the date of Dharna was so decided with the intention of converting it for the Solidarity to the two days Strike by All Unions and Associations on 12-13 December, 2017 for wage revision and against formation of separate tower company. Needless to say AIBDPA is committed to support the strike so that it is made a historic success..

Please arrange to send report and photos of the Dharna to CHQ without delay.

SERVICE BOOKS OF DOT PENSIONERS TO BE KEPT IN CCA OFFICES.

Department of Telecommunications has issued a directive to keep the service books of DoT retirees with the CCA offices. In 2013 also a similar order was issued but yet to be complied with for one or other reason. In the present letter, it is also mentioned that all service records of IDA pensioners are to be collected and kept with CCAs and in the case of service books of IDA pensioners further orders will be issued later.

Delay in processing of pensionary benefits to both DoT and BSNL pensioners is mainly attributed to non-receipt of service books and other service records from the concerned SSA office of BSNL. If these are kept at the CCA offices, the delay could be lessened to a great extent. But in our experience, what we have seen in many instances, is that it is not the absence of orders/ directive, but reluctence of certain officers to implement it. So let the concerned officers implement the new order of DoT duely endorsed by BSNL without fail.

view the letter >SERVICE BOOKS WITH CCAs

 

Reduction of retirement age – do not listen to rumour

30-11-2017

A lot of rumours are going on, with regards to the reduction of the retirement age of BSNL employees from 60 to 58. Com.P.Abhimanyu,GS and com.S.Chellappa, AGS, met Ms.Sujata Ray, Director (HR) today,  and discussed the issue. It seems that recently, the DoT has told the BSNL Management to consider reducing the retirement age from 60 to 58, with a view to reduce the expenditure, since the Company has been declared as “Insipiently Sick”. So far, the BSNL Management has not taken any decision on this. The GS and AGS firmly told the Director (HR) that any attempt to reduce the retirement age would be stiffly opposed. CHQ requests our comrades not to listen to rumours and also not to spread any rumour. In the past also, government tried to implement VRS and CRS on many occasions. But, BSNL employees have stopped them through their united struggles. Similarly, any attempt to reduce the retirement age, will also be stopped. 

(BSNLEU website)

WFTU Statement on the occasion of the International Solidarity Day with the People of Palestine 29 Nov 2017

 
 

On the occasion of the International Solidarity Day with the people of Palestine the WFTU expresses its long lasting solidarity with the Palestinian People. On this symbolic day we call upon the WFTU affiliates and friends, all militant trade unions of the world, in every country to express solidarity with the just struggle of the Palestinian people against the barbarity of Israeli occupation and hold actions of solidarity with the Palestinian people.

The UN, EU and other international organizations have great responsibility for the continuing unacceptable situation; in words they pretend to be fair but in practice they support the Israeli policy.

The WFTU expresses its full, stable and long-lasting class solidarity with the people of Palestine and their struggle for an independent homeland. We actively reject the genocide against our Palestinian brothers and sisters perpetrated by the imperialist criminal government of Israel.

We demand:

  • Recognition of the Palestinian state on the 1967 borders and east Jerusalem as its capital
  • The end of the settlements and the withdrawal of all settlers who have settled across the borders of 1967.
  • The demolition of the separation wall in Jerusalem.
  • All the Palestinian refugees to be granted the right to return to their homes, based on the relevant decisions of the UN
  • The elimination of any exclusion against the Palestinians in the West Bank and the Gaza strip.
  • The immediate release of imprisoned Palestinians and other political prisoners kept in the Israeli prisons.
  • The withdrawal of the Israeli army from all the occupied territories of the 1967, including the Golan Heights and the Sheba area of Southern Lebanon

 

In today’s conditions the workers of Palestine have to strengthen the comradely relations with WFTU, which stands on the side of Palestinian People from 1945 until today. It is necessary to dismiss from the trade unions the corrupted trade-unionists leaders who are puppets of yellow trade unionism;corrupted trade-unionist leaders who steal the sweat of the Palestinian workers.

The World Federation of trade Unions was and will be on the side of Palestinian people until the final victory. The internationalism of WFTU is not for sale neither is bought.

Long live the struggle of Palestinian People!

The Secretariat

In-depth: How state-run telco BSNL is turning the corner The company, headed by Anupam Shrivastava, who took over in January 2015, has been given a task by the telecom minister Manoj Sinha who took over from Ravi Shankar Prasad in July 2016 in a ministry reshuffle, to increase market share and bring back the telecom PSU into profits.

The company, headed by Anupam Shrivastava, who took over in January 2015, has been given a task by the telecom minister Manoj Sinha who took over from Ravi Shankar Prasad in July 2016 in a ministry reshuffle, to increase market share and bring back the telecom PSU into profits.

The telco, however, had a two-fold task in hand that includes maintaining the market share from erosion amidst stiff competition and falling tariffs, and turn profitable by devising strategies to make best use of its large-spread telecom infrastructure.

BSNL that offers pan India telephony services except in the lucrative markets of Delhi and Mumbai, had earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBIDTA) of Rs 672 crore in 2014-15 and Rs 3854 crore in 2015-16.​

In-depth: How state-run telco BSNL is turning the corner
In-depth: How state-run telco BSNL is turning the corner

By 2018-2019, BSNL will be back again in profits, Shrivastava said, and attributed growing data demand, infrastructure sharing and lesser salary outgo impact and declining debt to equity ratio as the main drivers for a road to profitability.

The state-owned telecom operator has Rs 3,200 crore of debt as of March 31, 2017 which is nearly 10% of its topline. The company, according to the top executive is aggressively aiming to bring it down to zero in next two years with a slew of measures.

In-depth: How state-run telco BSNL is turning the cornerIn-depth: How state-run telco BSNL is turning the corner

Competitive plans

In the wake of increasing competition and consumers’ growing tilt towards data, state-driven telco had not much options but to match its voice and data offerings to that of private sector rivals to safeguard its market share.

With its consumer base largely spread in tier-II or semi-urban areas and rural regions, a tariff to suit cost-sensitive subscriber base has always been one of the top priorities for the governmnent-driven operator. The data rates of all service providers fell sharply making voice calls virtually zero or for a fixed payment as soon as new comer Reliance Jio Infocomm made its way into the Indian telecom landscape.

Anticipating the consumer drift towards new entrant Jio, offering unlimited voice and data via its all IP-based network, BSNL has become the first telco to respond quickly and introduced competitive tariff that include Rs 249 a month scheme. The new plan BB 249 includes unlimited data usage with no FUP (fair usage policy) limit with free voice calls for six months. In June, the telco has also launched ‘BSNL Chaukka 444‘ scheme, a prepaid pack that allows 4GB of data per day with a validity of 90 days.

Earlier, Shrivastava said that the telco was fully prepared to match tariff with what rivals including Jio had to offer, and added that it would continue to provide affordable mobile service plans to its consumer base. The tariff strategy, however, led BSNL to keep its subscriber base intact even at a time when private sector rivals saw a massive customer erosion from the disruptive foray of billionaire Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio.

“All our plans are made in such a way that customers would not leave our network. Our market share slightly improved last year,” BSNL chairman Shrivastava said.

Network sharing

Telecom network sharing is a new revenue stream for the state-run telco which had in 2015 embarked on a strategy to capitalize on idle infrastructure— be it active or passive— and has put intra-circle roaming (ICR), bandwidth, dark fibre, and mobile tower on the table.

The company said that ‘co-opetition’, which is a collaborative competition, would continue to be its important strategy in order to earn from its unused or underutilized resources.

However, a majority of revenue, according to it, is coming from tower sharing that has contributed close to Rs 1,000 crore in 2016-17.

BSNL’s collaboration strategy, initiated in 2015, generated about Rs 1,500 crore in additional revenue in 2016-17 through active and passive telecom infrastructure sharing with incumbent telecom service operators.

“We will continue to focus on collaborative approach and look to double the revenue to Rs 3,000 crore this year,” BSNL top executive said, adding that private sector players have evinced major interest in tower sharing.

As a part of business revival plan, the telco has also entered into 2G intra circle roaming pacts with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Aircel while Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Jio Infocomm partnered BSNL for 2G and 4G services in September 2016.

Asset monetization

The telco has shortlisted surplus land parcels which it believes could be used to garner additional capital by way of leasing them out. The company has already submitted a proposal to monetize eight properties particularly in Delhi and Mumbai that may fetch around Rs 2,000 crore.

However, the entire exercise is being done by KPMG which is telco’s consultant to evaluate 15,000 land parcels covering Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Pune, Chennai, Kolkata, Mumbai and Delhi, among others. The valuation is pegged at Rs 65,000 crore, which is a massive increase from a book value of Rs 975 crore, a decade ago.

The monetization plan itself has a potential to give a huge capital boost to the telecom PSU, however the company aims to use valuation as its net worth in books.

MVNO business

With the government releasing mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) guidelines in June 2016, BSNL is looking to tap this opportunity to put its under-utilized network to use specially in semi-urban and rural regions.

The telco has identified MVNO business as one of the key potential areas although the tariffs in the recent past have come down sharply making such as business bit unviable. MVNO business allows incumbent telcos to offer voice minutes and data bandwidth to retailers in bulk to further resell.

“We expect to get Rs 500 crore from the VNO business annually which will increase incrementally,” Shrivastava said, adding that MVNO gives an opportunity and the BSNL Board has already identified it as a good revenue driver.

Enterprise business

The telco is focusing to strengthen its enterprise business and aims it to contribute at least 30% of the overall revenue. BSNL has over 20,000 business customers including large public sector firms such as the Reserve Bank of India and State Bank of India.

With a Wi-Fi initiative, telco plans to tap potential in places of historical, tourism and religious significance. The business model, however, is still in pipeline, BSNL plans to deploy a total of 1 lakh Wi-Fi hotspots by March 2019, a part of it would be operationalized through the Universal Service Obligation (USO) fund and revenue sharing venture.

Satellite phone business

The state-driven telecom major has recently forayed into a satellite-based voice and data services in collaboration with Inmarsat, a global satellite network, and plans to offer commercial services from 2018. BSNL has aggressive plans to provide satellite phone calls to private companies and persons, as well as offer in-flight communication (IFC) services via air carriers as well as make Internet and voice calls viable in ships, providing a new revenue stream altogether.

Shrivastava said that the telco has already received due approvals from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and added that BSNL has become a sole licensee to provide satellite-based services. Inmarsat has already installed its equipment at company’s premises after being tested for law enforcement purposes.

Salary outgo 

The state-run telecom has a mammoth outgo of close to 50% of its annual revenue towards meeting salary expenses of its staff. In 2015-16, the telecom company spent nearly Rs 15,000 crore in salary disbursements for an employee base of more than 200,000.

Private sector rivals including market-leader Bharti Airtel and India’s second-largest telco Vodafone India have 20,000 and 13,000 employees respectively, and they spend around 5% of their revenues on salaries. BSNL has now realized salary outgo, as a major force pulling it back although the VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) aimed to bring down headcount, is however, on hold considering a major spend is required to meet the plan.

Telco’s workforce, however, stands at 196,162 as on April 30, 2017. Backed by steady reduction in staff costs, it aims to achieve significant savings in next two years.

“Nearly 10% staff goes off the rolls every year as they achieve retirement. We are not filling up new positions and it could eventually help us in increasing operational profit,” the top executive added.

(courtesy:The Economic Times)