The CEC meeting of the All India BSNL-DOT Pensioners Association (AIBDPA) will be held at Ernakulam (Kochi), Kerala on 18th May 2012.The notice has been issued about one month back. Some comrades have intimated the difficulty in getting railway tickets, during this summer vacation. Since the CEC meeting is very important, it is necessary that all the Circle Secretaries and Office-bearers attend the meeting. Hence the tickets be purchased either by Tatkal or some other trains/routes may be booked. But it is of very much of importance to attend.

My hearty congratulations to Shri KCGK Pillai on his promotion as Director (Finance), BSNL. The selection  for the promotion was made about one and half years back, but it was delayed and delayed. At last the order has been issued. Congratulations!

The judgement delivered by the Delhi High Court three days back on the petitions filed by certain ITS office-bearers is an opportunity for the ITS officers to opt for absorption in BSNL and end the stalemate. The Court has given direction that the option date is to be   2005 and that the ITS officers should given their final option within 2 weeks of the judgement.

BSNL has suffered a lot in its development, expansion and services due to the unenviable situation of the non-settlement of the absorption of ITS officers in BSNL. A lot of heart-burning has also been caused.

Now that Delhi High Court has issued the order on absorption, the ITS officers should take a final decision whether to be part of BSNL or want to be in surplus cell and be in doubt about their future career.

It is understood that at last the BSNL will get some mobile lines. Now the BSNL management has issued Advance Purchase Order (APO) for 15 million GSM lines after the tender was finalised. After cancellation of the 45 million tender in 2007, 93 million tender in 2010 and 5.5 million later, the equipment crunch in BSNL became acute and the market share went down like anything. The continued pressure of the JAC  had resulted in purchase of telephone instruments, cables, drop wire etc. but both the GSM lines and Broadband modem were still not available. Now the issue of APO for 15 million mobile lines is certainly going to make a change. Let us hope the field level management will issue purchase orders immediately and utilise the opportunity to increase the connections and improve the services. Workers will fully co-operate.

It is reported in the website of FNTO that Shri K.Vallinayagam, General Secretary, FNTO has resigned from the General Secretary post on health grounds and Shri Jayaprakash has been elevated to the post in the CWC meeting held at Hyderabad. I contacted Shri Vallinayagam, who confirmed that he has resigned due to ill-health.

We had a very co-ordinated functioning all these years, especially when he was part of the United Forum. Even otherwise we had a long connection in the union, when we both opposed the Gupta line in the 1960s etc.

Shri Jayaprakash is the new GS, who was Asst. GS earlier. I hope that he will also be part of the joint struggles for the betterment of the workers as well as BSNL

HIGHLIGHTS

 In Wireless (GSM+CDMA) segment, monthly growth declined to 74.4 lac in February’12 compared to January’12. Top three performers in net Wireless Subscribers addition in Feb.’11 are: Idea (25.8 lac), Uninor (23.4 lac) & Bharti (18.2 lac). Tata & Etisalat lost 18.3 lac & 9.1 lac Subscribers respectively. S-Tel did not report. BSNL added 1.1 lac only.

 In Broadband segment, amongst 155 service providers, BSNL continue to command the market with 87.8 lac subscribers (64.8% of total 1.35 crore), followed by Bharti 13.6 lac (10.0%) & MTNL 10.3 lac (7.6%). Share of other 152 ISPs is 23.7 lac (17.5%) only.

Amongst BSNL Circles, top 4 performers in Wireless Subscribers’ growth in February’12 are Maharashtra (1.04 lac), Karnataka (94K), Kerala (91K) &Bihar (77K). Seven Circles posted negative growth in Feb.’12 viz.Assam (3.5 lac), MP (1.3 Lac), UP-E (32K),Punjab (15K), HP (8K), Haryana (7K) & Rajasthan (5K).

Mobile Number Portability requests increased from 3.28 crore subscribers at the end of January 2012 to 3.71 crore at the end of February 2012. In the month of February 2012 alone, 43 lac requests have been made for MNP.

VLR – Visitor Location Register shows the actual number of active Wireless telephones. In February 2012, VLR report indicated that only 73.60% (67 crore) of all wireless subscribers were active. Company-wise detailed status is shown in the table.

Urban – Rural Divide on the Basis of Tele- Density: The gap i.e. Urban TD minus Rural TD, has been consistently widening over the months, as is seen from these figures: April’11= 125.2, February’12= 130.8.

The continued losses for three years may result in loss of ‘Mini Ratna’ status to BSNL. From the status in 2006-2007, when the company was having a revenue of Rs. 39,715 crore and profit of Rs. 6,000 crore, the revenue has come down to Rs. 38,053 crore in 2007-08, to Rs. 35,812 in 2008-2009 and to Rs.32.046 in 2009-10. It started posting loss from 2009-10 continuing the same in 2010-11 and in 2011-12 the last with a loss of about Rs.6,000 core.  Thus from a profit of Rs. 6,000 crore in 2006-2007 it has reached to a loss of about Rs. 6,000 crores in 2011-12.

BSNL was eligible for the grant of Navaratna in 2006-2007, but the government delayed it and granted Mini Ratna only. The government did not want to give Navaratna as it had already made plans to ensure that it is weakened so as not to compete with the private players.  Continued denial of procurement, taking away all the surplus cash through many flimsy pleas, corruption etc. BSNL has been made loss making. Now it is going to ne downgraded from Mini Ratna also.

Unless there is a strong united move by the workers and pressure from political parties, BSNL future will be a matter of past. Let us all join together to save the BSNL.

The issue of BSNL & MTNL merger has again come in to the agenda of the government. This issue was discused in the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Information Technology yesterday. Secretary DOT, R.Chandrasekhar while appearing before the Standing Committee stated that the DOT Committee which looked in to the recommendations of the Board for Reconstruction of the Public Sector Enterprises (BRPSE) has accepted the merger of BSNL & MTNL.

The JAC had earlier favoured the proposal but had insisted that the issue of the pay scales, the issue of disinvestment ( while in MTNL about 46% is disinvested,  the unions did not allow any disinvestment in BSNL) etc. should be sorted out. The JAC had demanded that the MTNL shares disinvested should be bought back before merger.

The  JAC has to urgently move  to ensure that before the merger, the necessary actions are taken by the government as demanded by the JAC.