Need only 10 m more lines, says BSNL director

A director for Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has said the state-owned telco should not procure unnecessary capacity, referring to its 93 million line tender, it is learnt.

BSNL does not require 93 million GSM lines, and it can make do with 10 million lines in the north and east regions in the next one year, J S Deepak, a joint secretary in the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the government nominee on the PSU’s board, has told BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldip Goyal, sources said.

Also, Deepak is believed to have told Goyal that no additional capacity is required for the south and west zones or for 3G telecom services and that the actual quantity required to be ordered for north and east zones on a contingent basis should be worked out by BSNL immediately.

As equipment prices are continuously going down and technology is changing fast, BSNL should focus on procurement only for immediate requirements, according to Deepak’s recommendation.

According Deepak, the proposal put up before the BSNL board in December for 34.44 million lines in the east and north zones would have resulted in the PSU paying Rs 2,500 per line more than the earlier tender. This would have resulted in BSNL paying an extra Rs 8,600 crore.

As reported earlier, the BSNL board decided last week to cancel the $10 billion mega tender to procure telecom equipment for 93 million GSM lines.

The decision was based on a recent report prepared by a panel headed by Sam Pitroda, advisor to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on public information, infrastructure and innovation. Pitroda was asked by the PM to settle two thorny issues in the telecom sector — get the auction for 3G spectrum going and formulate a roadmap to revive BSNL.

The Pitroda committee came out with a 15-point ecommendation, one of which called for scrapping the 93 million line tender.

Recently, the tender had also came under the scrutiny of the Central Vigilance Commission (CVC), which too recommended scrapping the tender.

But, communications minister A Raja is learnt to have written to the PM after the CVC recommendation saying the tender should not be scrapped. It was then that the PM asked Pitroda to handle the BSNL mess.