BSNL losing out to private sector

Our Corporate Bureau
18 June 2007

New Delhi: Delays in executing equipment order is costing public sector BSNL its market share, which it is losing rapidly to the private sector in terms of adding new subscribers.

"We are adding only 3-4 lakh subscribers every month as against our plans to add 15-20 lakh, which is why our market share is eroding slowly," says BSNL chairman and managing director AK Sinha.

Sinha, however, is confident that BSNL would soon bounce back.

He attributes not having been able to increase BSNL's subscriber base as planned to delays in executing the order for expanding the capacity of 60 million GSM lines at an investment of over Rs 20,000 crore for which it had floated bids. The contract has been caught up in legal wrangling.

BSNL is yet to place the order, even after 15 months of its tendering process.