18 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, Forum
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A meeting of the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations will be held at 03.00 PM on 23 February 2015, especially to finalise the arrangements for the Parliament March on 25th February and the Indefinite Strike from 17th March 2015. All General Secretaries of BSNL Unions/Associations are requested to be present in time.
17 Tuesday Feb 2015
A Condolence meeting was held at Income Tax office premises, New Delhi, today, 17th February 2015, to pay homage to the legendary leader Com.S.K.Vyas, former Convener, Confederation of CG Employees and Workers as also the Secretary General of pension associations, BCPC and NCCPA, who passed away on 13th of this month. A good number of workers and leaders were present.
Com.K.K.N.Kutty, Chairman, Confederation presided and V.Bhattacharjee, Convener, Delhi unit of Confederation welcomed all. A condolence resolution was adopted by the house and all paid homage to Com.S.K.Vyas by standing in silence for one minute.
Comrades M.S.Raja, Giriraj Singh, M.Krishnan, Seetha Laxmi and many other leaders of the Central Govt. Employees movement spoke. Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, Dy. SG, BCPC and also Advisor of AIBDPA and Patron BSNLEU paid homage to Com. SK Vyas and mentioned about the glorious contribution of the veteran leader.
17 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, Forum
A meeting organised by the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations was held at Siliguri today. Com. M.K.Ghosh District Secretary, BSNLEU welcomed. Com. Pulok Ganguli (NFTE) presided.
Com. V.A.N.Namboodiri, National Convener Forum, Animesh Mitra, Circle Secretary W.Bengal and other leaders addressed.
11 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNL News, Forum
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It was agreed that the DOT will refund the charges of Rs. 6,700 crores to BSNL for the spectrum surrendered by BSNL. Though BSNL was not allowed to participate in the spectrum auction, it was directed to purchase the same in all circles at the highest rate of auction. Since the spectrum allotted was not suitable to latest technology and was more than necessary, BSNL surrendered the same with permission of the DOT and also on the assurance that the charges of Rs. 6,700 crores will be refunded to BSNL, which was in dire need of funds for expansion.
Though the spectrum has been surrendered two years back, the refund of Rs. 6,700 crore is yet to be refunded. The Govt. should honour its assistance and refund the amount at the earliest.
This is one of the important demand of the Forum with regard to the Revival of BSNL. The Government has to act immediately.
11 Wednesday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, Forum
Nothing is impossible!
The AAP has shown once again that dedicated and determined effort and support from the people can make impossible in to possible. Dedicated work of the 40,000 AAP volunteers along with the people oriented policies and assurances have helped AAP to sweep the polls in Delhi.
Can’t 2.5 lakh of BSNL workers go to the people and seek their support for the revival of BSNL? Dedicated service to the people, despite all hurdles created by the policies of the government and inaction by the BSNL Management, is the immediate task the employees have to ensure. Once we get the support of the people, the battle is half-won.
The customers are top-priority. Meet them, discuss with them their problems and try to solve it immediately. They are our masters and their problems are our problems. Humility and service mentality is most important.
SAVE BSNL – SAVE NATION.
10 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, Forum
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The next meeting of the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations will be held at 03.00 PM on 11th February 2015 at BSNLMS Office to discuss about the Parliament March and connected matters, review of the meeting with the CMD BSNL held on 09-02-2015 as also the preparations for the strike etc.
It is expected that all General Secretaries/representatives will be present in time.
10 Tuesday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, Forum
Meeting of the CMD with Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations on 09-02-2015
Consequent to the serving of strike notice by the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations, the CMD BSNL invited the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations for discussion on 9th February 2015, which was held in the board room of BSNL Corporate office. S/Shri Anupam Srivastava, CMD BSNL, A.N.Rai, Director (EB and HR), N.K.Gupta, Director (CFA and CM), Sujata Ray, ED(Finance), Shameem Akhtar, Sr.GM (SR) and other officers participated from the Management. The Forum was represented by Coms. C.Singh, Chairman, V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener and General Secretaries of the affiliated unions/associations. The meeting started at about 1500 hours and continued up to about 1900 hours.
The CMD in his introductory remarks mentioned that BSNL is a big company and this has to be taken into consideration while discussing the revival of BSNL. It has got a revenue of about Rs.28,000 crores and has assets worth Rs. 90,000 crores. While there was growth earlier, after 2006 it went down. There have been difficulties. Development of broadband is more important now. Data has become most important than voice telephony. Funds are required for the same, but taking loan is difficult since we have to pay the high interest also. Investment is required to expand the services. The entire issues have to be seen in this scenario. He congratulated the unions for taking up the issue of revival of BSNL.
Forum Convener thanked the CMD for holding the meeting and informed the decision of the Forum to organise a Parliament March on 25th February 2015 on the issue of Revival of BSNL and gave the noticer to that effect. He also mentioned about the efforts being made by the Forum for focusing the issue and propagating among the public. A Memorandum signed by more than one crore signatures from the public will be presented to the Prime Minister on the day of the Parliament March.
All the demands raised by the Forum were discussed. A brief report is given below.
Management agreed to issue minutes of the meeting.
The meeting was cordial, but the issues are not settled, since most items are to be settled at DOT/Govt. Levels. Hence our preparation for the struggle should continue.
V.A.N.Namboodiri
Convener, Forum
10-02-2015
09 Monday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNLEU
As scheduled the meeting between the CMD BSNL, Shri Anupam Srivastava and the leaders of the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations was held at the BSNL Board room, Corporate Office. The meeting was attended by both the Directors in addition to the CMD as also ED(Finance) and GM(SR).
All the issues included in the Charter of Demands was discussed in detail. The meeting continued for about 4 hours. The discussion was cordial. The demands of the workers were ably presented by Com. C.Singh, Chairman, V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener and other leaders of the Forum. The Convener gave the written notice for the Parliament March to the CMD BSNL.
A brief note on the discussions will be published shortly.
A meeting of the Forum will be held at 03.00 PM on 11th February 2015 at BSNLMS Office to review about the discussion, preparation for the Parliament March as also the issue of strike notice.
09 Monday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNL News
The meeting of the CMD with the Forum of unions/Associations on the issue of Revival of BSNL will be held today, 9th February 2015 at the Board Room, BSNL Corporate office. The meeting is being held in view of the notice given by the Forum on agitational programmes. All unions of the Forum are expected to participate.
A meeting of the Forum will be held after the meeting with the CMD
06 Friday Feb 2015
Posted in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, Telecom
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Anupam Shrivastava, the new chairman and managing director of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), has his hands full within weeks of taking over. In an interview with Mansi Taneja, he talks about an investment plan of Rs 39,000 crore over the next five years to expand BSNL’s core network and reviving the public sector undertaking in the next three years. Edited Excerpts:
BSNL has been making losses and performance has dipped on other fronts. What is your immediate priority?
BSNL has been making losses mainly because of depreciation of assets and administrative costs, which account for 55 per cent of our revenue. However, we are meeting operational needs through our topline. With a topline of Rs 28,000 crore and debt of Rs 4,500 crore, the situation is not that bad. The first priority is to change the direction of the company in such a way that losses are reduced year after year and there is enough compensation on depreciating assets.
What measures are you taking?
We realised we missed the mobile bus in 2006 when the penetration of cell phones was just 40-45 per cent. Now the penetration of mobiles has moved up to over 90 per cent. This is the journey, mainly voice, that BSNL has missed. But we want to make sure we are the leaders in data services. The age of voice is over and data is the next thing. We are in a strategic position, be it mobile, landline or optic fibre network.
How do you plan to leverage your network? Are there plans to integrate services?
We have invested Rs 4,084 crore in improving and expanding our mobile services. We are in the process of upgrading our core network. Purchase orders were placed last year and the network started rolling out in June. Almost 75 per cent of the project has been completed in the north and south zones. In the east, 35 per cent has been completed and work in the west has just begun.
We have a big landline base and with a huge copper cable and fibre network the focus shifts to Wifi. We will offer Wifi hotspots wherever commercially viable and offer an experience similar to 4G services. Also, we plan to launch our 4G service by 2016. The idea is to integrate Wifi with our mobile network to provide users a seamless experience of 3G and Wifi services.
We plan to invest Rs 39,000 crore in the next five years, a major chunk of it on data. The focus is on improving core network capabilities as we intend to exploit data. This is going to be a watershed year.
How much of your revenue comes from data?
Mobile services contribute Rs 13,500 crore, of which 10 per cent comes from the data segment and is consistently rising. From broadband services, we earn Rs 7,500 crore. We expect revenue from combined data and broadband services of Rs 15,000-16,000 crore in the next three years.
There was a proposal to offer voluntary retirement to your employees. How far has that gone?
The proposal was debated last year and would have required a Rs 12,000 crore outgo. But there were doubts over the plan. An alternative proposal was considered to offer salary support to employees. It would require Rs 6,500 crore, which the ministry agreed in principle to provide as a soft loan. Both proposals are pending with the ministry.
Last year, BSNL’s losses were around Rs 7,600 crore and in the previous year, around Rs 8,000 crore. So losses have already started coming down. We expect BSNL’s accounts to be in shape by 2018-19. (Courtesy: Business Standard)
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