Even as India's mobile telephony sector has been able to buck the slowdown, the performance of government-owned BSNL and MTNL has been deteriorating, despite having a oneyear lead in the launch of 3G services. According to DoT's latest data, both the companies are losing market share to private operators in the mobile telephony segment. BSNL and MTNL together are down from a 17% market share at the beginning of March 2008 to 13.6% in August 2009. In contrast, the private sector's share jumped from 83% to 86.4% during the same period. This worsening performance, according to analysts, could impact the valuations, as and when the government wants to disinvest part of it stake in these two companies. "The management and the government should focus on strengthening BSNL. Its existence has defeated cartelization and increasing of telecom tariffs. Listing will not solve any problem, except garnering funds for government," BSNL's Employees Union said on Friday, opposing both the listing and the deteriorating financial health of the firm. This compounds the challenges faced by telecom minister A Raja, who took over in May 2009 as this deterioration has happened entirely on his watch. The past year has been perhaps the worst period for the two companies, especially BSNL, despite its headstart advantage in 3G, which was created by the government in order to boost growth.It has been nearly one year since 3G services were launched by MTNL and six months after they were launched by BSNL. In contrast, depending on when 3G spectrum auctions are held, the private sector will be able to offer 3G services earliest by end 2010. BSNL began 2008-09 with a market share of 15.6% in the wireless space, falling to 12.5% in August 2009, while MTNL at 1.4% hit a low of 1% in August 2009. It is during this period that both companies launched 3G operations, hoping to capture not only higher revenues but also a new market segment. Even in the wireline space, BSNL and MTNL's position of dominance is slowly being eroded. The two firms jointly fell from a 89.4% share in March 2008 to 85.8% in August 2009. Meanwhile, the private sector increased its penetration by 34%, going up from 10.6% to 14.2%. Each of the two companies has been awarded 5 MHz of 3G spectrum in the 2.1 GHz band without any licence fee payments. However, they are expected to eventually pay an equivalent of the highest bid received for 3G in their respective circles once 3G auctions are completed. This means that the two companies may have to altogether cough upwards of Rs 6,000 crore depending on the bids received. * BSNL launches per-sec billing plan
*New Delhi: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) on Friday announced the launch of per-second billing plan, joining a host of mobile phone operators who have already introduced such tariff scheme. Under the new billing plan, he users can make local and STD calls within BSNL network at the rate of one paisa per second, BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal said. Another plan that has also been introduced allows local and STD calls to any network at 49 paise per minute, he added. The 49 paise/minute call is expected to help BSNL grab more users and take on the competition, as it takes the tariff to new low as far as STD calls are concerned. BSNL has also announced a lower tariff 3G services plan, under which voice calls would be charged at 30 paise per minute. PTI --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""GLOBAL SPECULATORS"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/globalspeculators?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
