Despite tough competition, the Indian Government is looking to revive BSNL and MTNL, which are running into huge losses.
State-run enterprise, BSNL, that operates across India and even in remote areas, had posted a profit of Rs 10, 000 crore when the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government left office in 2004, but "when we returned to government in 2014, it was suffering from a loss of Rs 7020 crore," Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told Times of India.
The minister told the news daily that the case of MTNL, which operates in Delhi and Mumbai only, was more curious as it was in profit till 2008-2009, but in 2014, it had a debt of Rs 16,000 crore.
"Someone, somewhere will have to take responsibility and accountability as to which were the forces and patronised by whom, responsible for creating a mess," Prasad told TOI adding that "revival of BSNL and MTNL are priority concerns".
Prasad alleged that the BSNL was practically not allowed any expansion due to which six to seven years were lost, indirectly pointing fingers at the previous Congress-led government.
Sources in the ministry told TOI that every time a tender was called, there were efforts to stall it on one pretext or the other including court cases, security issues, or other 'lame excuses', to allow that time to private players.
Prasad said he plans to recover lost ground in the seventh phase of expansion for BSNL.
He told the newspaper that to ensure good connectivity, 25,645 new base transmission centres (BTCs) would be in place in two to three years, of which nearly 15,000 had already been installed in the last one year.
Also, wireless exchanges of BSNL will be replaced by Internet Protocol (IP) in 432 telephone exchanges and for 70 lakh telephone lines.
Likewise, MTNL is upgrading 1080 3G and 825 2G sites in the national capital and 1080 3G and 616 2G sites in Mumbai.
Also, Prasad is looking to put the entire complaint redress system online to make it more effective and transparent.
As per reports, BSNL did a great job in restoring telephone connections, be it hudhud, floods in Kashmir or earthquake in Nepal. Pradesh told the telecom department that it should be able to live up to expectations in normal times