Telecom Policy

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Recently, the Government of India decided that BSNL should install mobile equipments and towers in specified districts of states like Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Orissa etc., which are affected with Naxalite activities. These parts of the country, are hilly, forest and extremely backward. No mobile service is available there. Private telecom companies do not want to go to such areas, since they cannot mint money there. Hence, Government has taken a decision that BSNL should go to such areas and provide mobile service. Certainly, as a government company, BSNL has to undertake this responsibility. At the same time it cannot expect to earn any profit in these areas.

In the similar fashion, BSNL is providing land line services in the vast rural areas of the country, as per the directions of the government. BSNL incurs thousands of crores of rupees loss due to this services.

Two years back BSNL floated a tender to procure mobile equipments for 93 million lines. In that tender process, Hua Wei emerged as the lowest bidder for South and West Zones. When the purchase order was about to be placed on Hua Wei, Home Ministry objected to it. Installation of equipments by Hua Wei, which is a Chinese company, could create security risks, said Home Ministry.

At the same time, private companies were freely allowed to purchase equipments from Hua Wei. The argument of Home Ministry was that, BSNL being the State owned company, government has to depend upon it for communication services, in times of internal and external emergencies. Hence, Government could not allow a Chinese company to install equipments for BSNL, since they could install ‘spyware’ along with the equipments, said the Home Ministry. This was one of the reasons due to which the 93 million line tender was cancelled.

From the above instances it is clear that being a Government owned company, BSNL has to function under certain restrictions and also it has to carry out certain social obligations. These restrictions and obligations are not there for the private companies. Due to this reason, BSNL is denied of the level playing ground.

It is unfortunate that the Government refuses to recognise this fact. It wants to treat both BSNL and the private companies on an equal footing. Government persues this policy under pressure from the World Bank, Multi National Companies etc. It refuses to give any concession to BSNL, considering the handicaps that the latter is suffering, being a State owned Company. How the Government expects BSNL to run the race with it’s one leg tied.

This policy of the Government, towards BSNL, seriously hampers the viability of the latter. In fact this is an anti-BSNL policy. Government has to change this policy. Otherwise we have to compel the Government to change it.

                                     - A View on New Telecom Policy