At the end of July, Bharti surpassed BSNL in total telephone subscriber numbers. While Bharti was at 74.4 million users, BSNL had 73.18 million subscribers.
But chairman says is not in a race with Bharti
NEW DELHI: State-owned telecom firm, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), seems to be banking heavily on its IPTV (internet protocol television) service and expansion in mobile telephony to spring back to the number one position in terms of subscriber numbers. At the end of July, Bharti surpassed BSNL in total telephone subscriber numbers. While Bharti was at 74.4 million users, BSNL had 73.18 million subscribers (mobile and fixed phone users put together).
Although BSNL chairman and managing director (CMD) Kuldeep Goyal told DNA Money on Thursday that the PSU telco was not in a race, he stressed that the organisation is “now on an expansion path”. He was referring to expansion in mobile as well as in fixed telephony.
For growth in mobile telephony, BSNL is expected to open a tender for 93 million GSM lines on September 10. BSNL had to suffer substantial fall in terms of growth in mobile subscriber numbers when it was asked to halve the size of its mega tender of over 60 million lines last year. As a result, BSNL fell to the number three position in terms of GSM user numbers, and Vodafone Essar jumped up to number two, next to the leader Bharti.
Besides dip in monthly additions in mobile subscriber number, BSNL also lost out in a big way in fixed telephony. As of end of July, the total number of telephone subscribers was 334.84 million, out of which there were 296.08 million wireless users and the remaining 38.76 million were fixed line subscribers. BSNL is left with only 30.65 million fixed line subscribers now.
On whether the decline in fixed line telephony would continue in general and for BSNL in particular, Goyal said, “IPTV should stabilise it”. BSNL is offering triple play-fixed phone, broadband and IPTV.
According to Goyal, BSNL would launch its IPTV service across 100 cities soon. On whether BSNL was targeting to get back to the number one position, Goyal said, “We are not in that race. We will grow like others are growing.”
m_nivedita@dnaindia.net
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