Tag Archives: BSNL

BSNL Connections declined – Market Share Down

16 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL News

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

,

BSNL released a few figures delineating its market share and tele-density in the country for the first quarter of the year. Out of the total telephone connections of 996.1 million as of March 31st, 2015, 93.24 million telephone connections are provided by BSNL.

According to the data, BSNL occupies fifth position as an operator, with a market share of 9.4 percent. During March 2015, BSNL witnessed a decline of 0.2 percent in market share. Also, for the tenure of 2014-2015, the provider has registered a decline of 3 percent.

Number of telephone connections of the provider has decreased by one million during March 2015. 20 million connections are lost during 2014-2015.

Out of the total 970 million wireless connections, 77 million are provided by BSNL. The operator acquired sixth position as wireless service provider, with a market share of eight percent. Although the wireless industry has grown by 7.2 percent, an 18 million decrease in connection is found for BSNL during 2014-2015.

For broadband (wired) services, 9.98 million out of the 15.54 million are provided by BSNL. BSNL has been at the first position as a broadband (wired) operator with the market share of 65 percent as of February 28th.

As an operator with the total number of telephone connections in a single license area, BSNL holds 2nd position in Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka and Kerala circles, reported BSNL in a release. (Coutesey: Voice and data)

Is there a portal for complaints by BSNL Customers? If not, why can’t it be installed?

05 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNL News

≈ 8 Comments

Tags

,

Complaints from many BSNL customers are reaching me with regard to non-functioning of telephones, cable faults not repaired, no Modem for broadband etc. I am trying my best to see that these complaints are attended to, by contacting our circle Secretaries/District secretaries. Once the complaint is attended to, some of these subscribers contact/email me and convey their thanks.

During the travel in Air India, the staff brought some  forms and requested our feed back on the service. It seemed a good idea to find out what is the opinion of our customers about BSNL. I do not know whether any portal is there by BSNL C.O. to which people can complaint and get immediate action.

If yes, well and good. If such a system is not there, my suggestion is that BSNL Management can install a portal for this purpose and take immediate action for settling the complaints. I hope the BSNL Management will consider such an option so that we can know the ground reality and help our customers.

 

Management Trainee In BSNL – Date of Exam. announced

05 Tuesday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL News

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

BSNL has notified examination for recruitment of Management Trainees, both internal and from outside. The written examination will be conducted on 8th and 9th August 2015.

Are you on time, Comrade?

04 Monday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNL News, Forum

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

,

We are very unhappy and angry when our train, bus or flight is late, because it will delay our reaching the destination in time and spoil our plans and programmes. We are angry when the news paper boy does not bring the paper in time. We are also angry if there is delay in breakfast or lunch. We are, in fact, not happy when others are late or delayed.

But what about ourselves? Are we in time to attend office? Are we in time to attend faults? Have we completed our work in time?  The answer is up to you to give.

Revival of BSNL is a ‘Do or Die’ battle for us. We can not be casual in this. Each and every employee, executive and Top Management have to jointly make all out efforts to bring BSNL out of the present crisis and rejuvenate it. Is it possible. IT IS!

 

Government should come to the assistance of BSNL – Give its due money

04 Monday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL News, Forum

≈ 4 Comments

Tags

,

BSNL is in dire straits and has been posting loss for the last 5 financial years. It has no funds to purchase equipment, which are urgently required.

Instead of assisting BSNL, the government is even keeping the justified funds of BSNL with it, delaying payment. Rs. 1,250 crores already sanctioned for BSNL for 2012-13 in lieu of ADC for loss making connections is not yet given though two years have passed. Rs. 6,700 crore for the surrendered BWA Spectrum is still not paid to BSNL. DOT has stated that Rs.2,000 is adjusted towards licence fee and only Rs. 4,700 is to be paid.

There is no difficulty for the government to waive the taxes of Vodafone, Nokia etc. coming to thousands of crores. It has no difficulty to reduce the penalties imposed on private telecom companies for violating roaming rules etc. But when it is BSNL, its own company,it has to pay full licence fee without any relaxation, no waival of its dues and  has to pay every thing to the Government. If this Rs. 4,700 crores and Rs.1,250 crores are received immediately, BSNL can purchase equipment which will improve the services.

Central Government should stop this step-motherly treatment to its own company. The Communications Minister should step in and ensure that the the dues of BSNL are immediately paid.

The Communications Minister , Shri Ravi Shankar Prasad has stated that he will not allow BSNL and MTNL to die. Now he has to keep his words.

Revival of BSNL – Better Customer Service a MUST

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, Forum, General, Telecom

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

,

During the discussion with the Secretary, DOT by the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations representatives, the demand of the Forum that it should be made mandatory for the Central/State governments and PSUs to take service from BSNL was raised. We cited the example of Air India, which has been mandated for Government officers for flight travel.

The Secretary at this stage brought the issue of efficiency, or rather inefficiency of the BSNL services. Unless the service is improved, nobody can be forced to take it, he said. He said that in the meeting of the Communications Minister with the MPs of various states, almost all the MPs raised the issue of inefficient service, non-repair of faults in time, call dropping, insensitive dealing etc. and wanted improvement of services. he also cited many public and government officers raising such complaints.

As stated above, the  complaints are not from M.P.s alone. To be frank, wherever we meet the public, such complaints are raised. This is a real issue with regard to the revival of BSNL. There is much resentment about our services in general. That is known to all of us. This is also one reason why our land-line connections are drastically coming down and one day we may lose the first position in land lines also. Support of the people are very much necessary in our struggle for “Revival of BSNL”. How we can improve the services and how we can get the support of the people are very important points. What can be done in the matter?

1. Cordial, friendly and supporting dealing with the customer/public: As stated by Gandhiji, ‘Customer is the most important person in the premises’. He is a welcome visitor. The customer visits BSNL office or Customer Care Service for his requirements, whether to get a new connection, pay the bills, making enquiries or to make complaints about his faulty equipment, service etc. etc.

The first thing that the employee/worker can do is to greet the customer with Namaste / Good Morning, and a friendly smile and ask politely what is his requirement? This itself will make him feel that the employee is there to help him. Once his requirement is known, the employee has to immediately attend to it if he is the person dealing with it. Otherwise he has to contact the concerned person and inform him. Asking the customer to go from one person to another person will irritate him. Now that ‘One Window System’ is arranged, the same employee can mostly deal with the problemss.

If it is a case of fault/out of order/ cable fault etc. the arrangement should be that it should be immediately attended. A usual fault can be attended in 2-3 hours time at the maximum. The RM/TM/TTA, whoever is the employee, has to be immediately ordered for attending the fault, whether on line, cable,broadband or whatever it is. It should be ensured that such faults are rectified in the day at least. In case of cable fault etc., if some delay is expected, the customer can be informed the reason for the delay.

Convenient arrangements should be made for the customers at the CSC. If more customers are there, the slip system with serial numbers can be arranged as in banks, so that the customer need not stand in the queue. When his slip number is announced or put on the screen for that purpose, he can go to the counter and present his requirements.

The customer may be angry sometimes due to delay on the part of the BSNL to his demands/requirements. In such cases, the employee should be very calm, hear him fully and patiently explain him the reasons for the delay and express ‘sorry’ for the difficulties caused to him and also assure that the needful will be done without any further delay. In case, it is beyond his authority, the customer may be asked to meet his superior for the same. In no case, the employee should become angry and retort. Patience and being cool is a great asset. While speaking over telephones also, you have to be calm and quiet and not irritate the person at the  other end.

Now the customer has several options other than BSNL for getting telecom services. This we must always remember. Our service should be better than the private companies, if we want to get more and more subscribers.

There is a system in some places that the pending fault are closed by the end of the day and reopened next day to show that there is no pending fault. This is completely a wrong process. Till the fault is rectified, it should be pending, compelling the staff for early fault-repair.

A usual reply from the employee for the inefficiency is that there are no equipment. This is partly true. The earlier situation has  changed. Now in almost all SSAs, urgent equipment are available, though less in number compared to the requirement. It is our job to see that the equipments are mad available.

These are only  some  few suggestions which came to my mind immediately. There are so many other things we can do for the revival of BSNL.

Can’t we practice and implement these small niceties and help to the customer in our premises? It will make a whole change in the situation, which will be in our favour.

If you have got any such suggestions, please intimate  through Comments or otherwise, which we will certainly take seriously.

Meeting of Secretary DOT with Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations on 01-05-2015

02 Saturday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNL News, Forum

≈ 9 Comments

Tags

, ,

FORUM OF BSNL UNIONS/ASSOCIATIONS

D-7, Telegraph Place, Gole Market, New Delhi –

A Brief Report of the Secretary DOT’s Meeting with the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations held on 1st May 2015 on the 21-22 April  strike issues

A meeting of the Forum of BSNL Unions/Associations with the Secretary DOT, Shri Rakesh Garg, was held on 1st May 2015 at the Committee Room of Sanchar Bhawan to discuss about the issues raised in the Two Days Strike of BSNL employees on21-22 April 2015.

In addition to the secretary DOT, Special Secretary (T) Smt. Rita Teotia, Member (Finance) Smt. Annie Moraes, Member (Services) Shri N.K.Yadav, Administrator USOF Smt. Aruna Sunderarajan, Joint Secretary(T) Shri V.Umashankar, Director(PSU) Shri Sanjeev Gupta and other officers were present from DOT. BSNL was represented by CMD Shri Anupam Shrivastava, ED(Finance) Smt. Sujata Ray, Sr.GM(SR) Shri Shamim Akhtar and other officers.

From the Forum side Coms. C.Singh (NFTE) Chariman, V.A.N.Namboodiri, Convener Forum, P.Abhimanyu(BSNLEU), K.Jayaprakash(FNTO), Prahlad Rai(AIBSNLEA), K.Sebastin (SNEA), S.V.S.Subrahmaniam(BTEU), Suresh Kumar(BSNLMS), Rasheed Khan(TEPU), H.P.Singh(BSNLOA), Sunil Gautam (SNATTA), R.P.Sahu (AIGETOA), Rakesh Sethi (AIBSNLOA), Hari Singh(BTU BSNL), Rana Pratap(BEA) and S.Raveendran(SEWA BSNL) participated.

The meeting started at 17.15 hours. Secretary DOT welcomed. All the participants introduced themselves. Convener Forum thanked the Secretary DOT for holding the meeting, though only after the strike. He conveyed May Day Greetings to all the participants. He also mentioned about the statements of the Communications Minister regarding his concerns for the revival of BSNL, which is a good sign. Then the issues connected with the strike issues were discussed, a brief report of which is given below:

  1. 1. Financial Assistance from Government and implementation of assurances given at the time of Corporatisation of BSNL

The Forum leaders pointed out that at the time of Corporatisation, the then Communications Minister Shri Ram Vilas Paswan, had assured full support for the new entity and orders were issued to financially assist BSNL through payment of ADC, Reimbursement of Licence Fee and also liberal subsidy from the USO Fund. Within a few years, all these have been discontinued creating a heavy financial burden of the BSNL resulting in loss for the last five years. The Forum representatives demanded that all these assurances be implemented/ restored.

The amount of Rs. 1,250 crore recommended from the USOF in lieu of ADC for 2012-13 is not yet paid to BSNL. It needs to be paid urgently and such allotments should be made for next years also. BSNL is having a loss of about Rs.10,000 crore yearly for providing rural connections etc. as per the universal service  policy of the government, which should be fully compensated by the Government.

Further, the Forum demanded that refund of charges for the BWA spectrum surrendered by BSNL coming to about Rs. 6,700 crore be paid without any further delay.

BSNL is eligible for refund of Income Tax paid, considering its payment to DOT on various counts. This may come to about Rs. 7,000 crore. This should be refunded.

By making payment of pension contribution on the basis of the maximum of the pay scale, BSNL was compelled to pay about Rs. 2,400 crore extra, which may be refunded. The government order on payment of pension contribution on the actual basic pay should be implemented in the case of BSNL.

The salary of the employees in the TERM CELL, which is part of DOT, is being paid by BSNL, which should be repaid to BSNL.

Further for immediate purchase of urgently required equipments, the DOT may give a soft loan of about Rs.10,000 crore to BSNL.

The Secretary DOT stated that the amount in lieu of ADC from USOF is given as per recommendations of TRAI and DOT will do accordingly in future also. Process for payment of Rs. 1,250 crore allotted has started and will be paid early.

The refund of charges of BWA Spectrum is being considered. The reconciliation for the refund of the Income Tax paid has started and will be finalised soon. The issue of payment of pension contribution on the basis of the actual pay will be taken up with the government. The question of repayment of payment  made to TERM CELL on salary etc. also will be considered. With regard to Soft Loan of Rs. 10,000 crore, Secretary DOT stated that BSNL can take loan from banks.

He further stated that the government has to provide level playing field to all operators to which the Forum leaders pointed out that in fact the private players are being favoured as in the case of giving earlier licence for mobile services.

  1. 2. Revision of Pension of BSNL Retirees and orders for 78.2% IDA Pension fixation for pre-2007 and post 2007 retirees up to June 2013:

The Forum leaders expressed strong resentment at the undue delay in issue of orders on 78.2% IDA Pension fixation for the BSNL retires up to June 2013. Those who retired after June 2013 have already received the same. The pensioners are put to much loss in their pension. Already it had been delayed for years and early orders are required. They also demanded that Pension Revision should be made whenever there is a wage/pay revision for employees. They also demanded that the condition of 60%-40% condition on payment of pension is unjustified and should be done away with.

The Secretary DOT agreed to take up the matter of Pension revision with the government. He assured that the Cabinet Note of 78.2% is being prepared and will be finalised soon. With regard to removal of 60% :40% condition on pension payment, the earlier DOT orders mentioned by the Forum will be  examined.

  1. No Merger of BSNL and MTNL:

The Forum demanded that before any merger decision is taken, the liabilities of MTNL to the extent of Rs. 20,000 crore has to be waived, the disinvested shares to be purchased back and HR issues settled. Secretary DOT told that no decision has been taken and the concerns raised by the Forum will be attended to before any decision is taken.

  1. 4. Filling up of Posts of Directors in BSNL.

To the demand of the Forum for filling up posts of Directors in BSNL, Secretary DOT stated that government is taking action in the matter.

  1. 5. Transfer of all assets to BSNL

Forum demanded that all the assets of BSNL should transferred to it without delay. Further, the representatives stated that many BSNL buildings are being taken by CCA etc arbitrarily. This should be stopped.

DOT stated that the demarcation between the DOP and DOT are still pending in some places. This has to be identified. The transfer of assets to BSNL is being examined.

  1. BSNL Service to be mandatory to Central/State governments and PSUs

The demand of the Forum for making that the BSNL services should be made mandatory for the governments etc. is not accepted. There are a lot of complaints about BSNL services and in this situation, the government will not accept any such proposal. The Forum leaders explained the reasons for the present position of inefficiency and intimated that suggestions for improvement of the same have been made by them.

Other issues like 30% of superannuation benefits to BSNL recruited officials, reduced pay scales etc. were raised, but the Secretary DOT stated that these are in the domain of the BSNL.

The meeting ended at about 19.00 hours, after vote of thanks to the Chair and to all. The Convener, Forum proposed that such meetings should be held in future also to sort out pending issues.

 

 

 

 

BSNL reduces Roaming, SMS charges by 40% and 75% respectively

01 Friday May 2015

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNL News, Forum, SAVE BSNL CAMPAIGN, Telecom

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

, ,

After the announcement of free calls from BSNL land lines  in the night, BSNL  again has taken customer friendly decisions. It has reduced the roaming charges by 40% and the SMS charges by 75%. Well done. Despite loss, BSNL has done the correct thing.

No Disinvestment of BSNL, Air India – MoS Finance

25 Saturday Apr 2015

Posted by in Uncategorized

≈ 5 Comments

Tags

, ,

 Minister of State of Finance, Shri Jayant Sinha informed Lok Sabha on 24th April 2015 that there will be no disinvestment of BSNL and Air India at present. He also stated that the employees in both PSUs are strongly opposing disinvestment.

Our opposition against disinvestment is noted by the government. Any move to disinvest BSNL will be against the assurances given by the government to the Joint Forum of BSNL Unions. But however, the workers have to be ready for strong struggle, if any move starts for disinvestment.

BSNL takes the lead offering free calls at night

24 Friday Apr 2015

Posted by in BSNL - Better Service to the Nation, BSNL News, Forum

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

,

BSNL has taken the initiative in offering free calls between 21.00  to 07.00 hours for land line connections from 1st May 2015. It will give boost to the land line business and will benefit the customers. There is no time limit given. However, it will be reviewed after six months.

Forum welcomes the decision.