SNATTA KRISHNAGAR SSA

20-03-2012:30% Court case update .............

2012-03-20T04:52:00.000-07:00

Next Date of hearing 23-04-2012.....................

16-03-2012: BIG HIT BY " SACHIN">>>>>>>>>>>>100/100.....Century of Century....

2012-03-16T08:02:00.000-07:00

16-03-2012: Central Budget 2012-13: ..highlights................

2012-03-16T07:53:00.000-07:00

1)Income tax exemption upto annual income 2 lakh and incopme tax @ 10% between 2-5 lakh, and @ 20% between 5 lakh..to 10 lakh.... and @ 30% above 10 lakh
2) service tax increased from 10% to 12%
3) Mobile phones are exempted from basic custom duty

16-03-2012: We are persuing to get the Security money earlier...the matter is under active consideration of administration...

2012-03-16T05:21:00.000-07:00

16-03-2012: snatta /KSH is persuing for " EPF statement " of last FY..

2012-03-16T05:18:00.000-07:00

16-03-2012: question raised in LOKSABHA by Some of the Hon"ble MPs: regarding utilisation of Network Capacity...

2012-03-16T05:17:00.000-07:00

Question was: wheather telecom services affected in the country in rural areas due frequent failure of generator/non-supply of fuels to power the generators in telephone exchange or mobile towers?

16-03-2012: Order issued for "option for the Duty in JTO Posts"....for the TTAs having 3 years service as on 31-03-2012...Click for order copy

2012-03-16T05:10:00.000-07:00

15-03-2012: EPF interest reduced by 1.25% and nowit is ....8.25%

2012-03-15T11:00:00.000-07:00

15-03-2012: snattachq writes letter to NFTE to persue to the manangement to form the payscale upgradation committee as the case of Executives....

2012-03-15T10:41:00.000-07:00

12-03-2012: Mobile companies add 9.8 million users in January.....PTI

2012-03-11T21:40:00.000-07:00

NEW DELHI: Telecom operators added 9.88 million mobile subscribers in January, taking the total telephone user base in the country to 936.12 million, sectoral regulator Trai said today.

India's mobile subscriber base increased to 903.73 million in January, up from 893.84 million in the preceding month, registering a growth of 1.11 per cent, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) said in a statement.

The overall teledensity (telephones per 100 people) in India reached 77.57 per cent.

However, the number of active mobile subscribers, according to the visitor location register (VLR) data, was 659.97 million on the date of Peak VLR for the month of January 2012.

VLR numbers provide details on active customers at any given point of time, excluding switched-off and out-of-the- coverage area customers.

The growth in the wireless category was led by Uninor, which added 2.49 million users, taking its total subscriber base to 38.79 million.

It was followed by Idea Cellular, which added 1.74 million new users to take its subscriber base to 108.12 million.

The country's largest operator Airtel added 1.3 million subscribers and its base was 176.95 million users.

Reliance Communications and Vodafone added 0.94 million and 0.85 million new customers to take their subscriber base to 151.02 million and 148.60 million, respectively.

State-owned telcos BSNL and MTNL added 0.87 million and 57,564 new users in January. Their subscriber base stood at 97.63 million and 5.73 million, respectively.

Aircel, Tata Teleservices and Sistema Shyam added 0.81 million, 0.22 million and 0.14 million new subscribers, respectively.

Wireline subscriber base declined from 32.69 million at the end of December 2011 to 32.39 million at the end of January 2012. BSNL and MTNL hold 80.91 per cent of the wireline market share.

Broadband subscriber base increased from 13.30 million at the end of December 2011 to 13.42 million at the end of January this year.

The number of requests from subscribers to change their operators under the Mobile Number Portability (MNP) facility stood at 3.55 million in January.

In MNP Zone-I (Northern and Western India) maximum number of requests were received in Gujarat (3.04 million), followed by Rajasthan (2.72 million).

In MNP Zone-II (Southern and Eastern India) maximum number of requests were received in Karnataka (3.40 million), followed by Andhra Pradesh (3.04 million).

12-03-2012: Bharti Airtel may kick start 4G services from Kolkata on March 20.......ET NEWS ....now when BSNL will start?

2012-03-11T21:36:00.000-07:00

Bharti Airtel, India's largest mobile phone company by revenues and customers may kick start its fourth generation services from Kolkata on March 20, executives familiar with the development told ET.

This would be the second launch of 4G services in India after Augere Wireless, which has been offering high-speed data through dongles (data cards) since last month.

The Bharti Airtel spokesperson declined to comment, but pointed out that its chief executive Sanjay Kapoor had recently said that the telco would launch 4G services by March-end.

Bharti Airtel had paid Rs 3,314.36 crore for getting fourth generation spectrum in four circles - Maharashtra, Karnataka, Punjab and Kolkata - in a government auction held in 2010.

ET had earlier reported that Bharti had fininalized vendors for its 4G foray, with ZTE being supplying the equipment and managing operations in Kolkata, while Nokai Siemens gor Maharashta, Huawei for the Karntaka region and Sweden's Ericsson for Punjab.

07-03-2012: Trai suggests Rs 600 crore aid for BSNL's rural operations....ET Bureau....CLICK HERE

2012-03-06T19:47:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has asked the Centre to provide cash-strapped BSNL with Rs 600 crore to sustain its loss-making wireline operations in rural India. While BSNL had sought support of Rs 2,580 crore annually, the regulator has recommended this interim amount be paid from the Universal Services Obligation Fund. Trai will study BSNL's demands and decide on the annual subsidy after consulting all stakeholders.

All mobile phone companies contribute 5% of their annual revenues towards the USOF, and the unutilised amount in this fund is estimated to reach Rs 36,000 crore by the end of the 2013 financial year.

For the past three years, BSNL had been getting Rs 2,000 crore annually to sustain its landline operations in rural India. Prior to that, BSNL had been receiving a levy called the Access Deficit Charge, where all private telcos paid a certain percentage of their annual revenues, to sustain its loss-making rural telephony services.

After the ADC charge was abolished in 2008, BSNL was given Rs 2,000 crore subsidy for a three-year period ending July 2011. Since then, the PSU has been threatening to shut its rural landline offerings, which it claims is not viable. According to BSNL's estimates, it spends over Rs 8,000 crore annually as opex, including human resources, for its wireline services in rural India.

Trai, in its communication to DoT said that a subsidy of 600 crore should be given to BSNL purely as an ad hoc measure since it would take more time to issue a consultation paper, followed by a consultation process. "Besides, keeping in view the fact that at this stage it may not be easy for the government to obtain any additional funds for this purpose through the normal budgetary process, the authority recommends that the subsidy grant of Rs 600 crore may be made from the USOF," the regulator said.

BSNL had asked Trai to issue interim suggestions for an ad hoc amount before it came out with its final recommendations, the regulator gave the rationale behind this decision.

However, the regulator added that the subsidy and the source of the subsidy - USOF - were just a one-time adjustment. ET BUREAU

07-03-2012: Snatta/ krishnagar writes letter to GM/Krishnagar on 06-03-2012

2012-03-06T19:39:00.000-08:00

snatta krishnagar writes letter to GM krishnagar regarding the following:
1) refund of security money immediately
2) E.P.F. statement of last financial year
3) issuance of confirmation order to the rest part of TTAs

05-03-2012: BSNL Tablet is Flashing INDIA....Know about BSNL Tablets..Media News

2012-03-05T03:01:00.000-08:00

New Delhi: To bridge the digital divide, public sector telecom operator BSNL recently launched the extremely low cost tablet bundled with its connection. BSNL tablet, Penta IS701R, is manufactured by Noida based Pantel Technologies, is a Wifi model, and is priced at Rs 3,499.
The Mobile Indian got hold of BSNL's entry level model, Penta IS701R which comes with a bundled data plan of 5 GB for 60 days, after which consumers can recharge the same plan for Rs 750.
Here we bring the first impression of the device.

Click here to watch a hands-on video of BSNL's Penta IS701R tablet
Specifications
Penta IS701R is a WiFi-only tablet with Android 2.3 operating system, a 1 GHz processor and 256 MB of RAM. Its 7 inch resistive touchscreen has 800 x 600 pixel resolution and a 16:9 aspect ratio.
Though the review piece which The Mobile Indian got didn't had HDMI port but the company officials said that the tablet which will be available in market will have an HDMI port through which it can be connected to a TV.
The tablet has a 3000 mAh battery and 2 GB internal memory that can be expanded through a micro SD card. It has a VGA front facing camera and a micro USB port that can be used to connect data card and to charge the device.
Look and feel
As compared to other low cost tablets in the market, Penta IS701R looks somewhat better in terms of specification but the foam factor or design looks similar to other tablets available in the market. It has a plastic body and a textured finish for better grip. The tablet has four physical buttons; three on the front panel - refresh, home and menu; and one on side panel for power on and off which doubles up as a screen lock button.
Penta IS701R has a VGA camera on the front panel which can be used for video conferencing, but the quality is average. For connecting the headset it has a 3.5 mm jack and expandable memory slot which can be expanded to 32 GB.
Performance
The device which The Mobile Indian got had an average response to touch. The response to swipe was frustrating as one had to press the finger harder to get the response.
Apart from this, Penta IS701R doesn't have a physical volume rocker button that means if you are using any app and want to control the audio you have to first go to the home screen and access the volume control icon, placed at the top right corner of the tablet. Also, for the short time that we charged the tablet, its back panel (under which the battery unit is placed) heated up a lot.
BSNL Tablet supports popular file formats like .doc, .docx, .pdf, .pptx, MP3, WMA and .RM.
We didn't face any issue while accessing the internet on Wifi mode or touch keyboard. As a matter of fact touch experience with keyboard was quite nice.
Conclusion
At Rs 3,499 Penta IS701R is a decent device for customers who are plunging into the world of tablets for the first time. There is nothing amazing about the device except the HDMI port.....IBN LIVE

05-03-2012: Snatta CHQ proposes the following for designation......

2012-03-05T02:51:00.000-08:00

SNATTA CHQ proposes the following designations to the Chairman Designation Committee.

Existing designations	Pay Scale	New designations
Telecom Technical Assistant	NE-9	Junior Engineer Telecom or Junior Telecom Engineer
NEPP- 1st Promotion	NE-10	Engineer Telecom
NEPP- 2nd Promotion	NE-11	Sr. Engineer Telecom
NEPP- 3^rd Promotion	NE-12	Sr. Engineer Telecom (Grade-I)
NEPP- 4^th Promotion	E1-A	Assistant Manager

05-03-2012: Provisional appointment order issued to A new recruited TTA named Sri Subrata sadhukhan before Reciept of PVR

2012-03-05T02:37:00.000-08:00

after continous persuation of Snatta krishnagar , the provisional order for joining of new tta is issued today. again we showed our unity that our unity rightly think of ourselves every moment .

29-02-2012: Gist of meeting today with newly joined GM/KSH ................

2012-03-01T04:29:00.001-08:00

DS snatta /Krishnagar alongwith all the non-executive unions of these SSA met GM/KSH for welcome meet. we from our side welcome new GM who has taken the charge of Krishnagar SSA additionally alongwith GM/Behrampore. various discussion took place regarding our SSA. the importants are :
1) GM/KSH propsed to deliver the charge of JTO post to specially all the direct Recruited TTAs of these SSA on need basis. we ask the status of the charge . he explained that these are purely temporary arrangement and just " look on" charge. no monetory benefit will be given. it is purely to meet up the requirement JTOs. it is purely local arrangement. we lastly told that we from our side need to think of the matter with our member & CHQ also. in these matter, we shall call a meeting by these week to sort out our decision. members are requested to prepare for the meeting.
2) we have requested to increase the number of p.c.ms to the DSLAMs so that BBD speed may be increased.
3) we appealed to take positive steps to increase our revenue etc.

29-02-2012: Government to auction 4G spectrum this year: Kapil Sibal...PTI/ET

2012-02-29T03:54:00.000-08:00

29-02-2012: CBI searches houses of ex-BSNL chief, 3 officials in WiMax case... Business standard

2012-02-29T03:49:00.000-08:00

The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Saturday searched the premises of former Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) chairman, three top officials, and a company believed to be close to former Telecom Minister A Raja in connection with the alleged scam of Rs 535 crore in award of contracts for WiMax services.
The investigative agency has registered a case against the then chairman-cum-managing director of BSNL Kuldeep Goyal, director consumer mobility R K Agarwal, the then general manager Pradeep Narang and then DGM (strategic Planning) Anil Kumar, besides two private companies, CBI sources said
Nine teams of officials carried out searches in Delhi, Faridabad, Ghaziabad, Gurgaon, Chennai and Kolkata.

The officials allegedly abused their position and facilitated award of Leased Service Area (LSA) contract for development of WiMax services to Starnet Communications in 2009, considered to have close links with Raja, even though it did not fulfil eligibility criteria, they said.
The eligibility conditions stipulated that the company should have a turnover of Rs 100 crore.
"It is alleged that the said company did not have the required qualification of Rs 100 crore annual turnover for the last two years," CBI said in a statement.
There was an estimated wrongful loss of Rs 535.50 crore to BSNL, the agency said.
The agency has booked directors of Starnet Communication Rajesh Bhatt and S Manoharan in connection with the case and carried out searches at their offices in Kolkata and Chennai Another company Wellcom Communications was also searched during the operation, sources said.

29-02-2012: Nothing is mentioned in NCM Discussion for the TTAs although these cadre are the mostly affected segment now in bsnl.. we are the future of BSNL but we are forgotten in the representation in NCM. freinds we should not forget the attitude in future.

2012-02-29T03:27:00.000-08:00

29-02-2012: DGM/KSH Sri K.G.Majumder is retiring from service today.

2012-02-29T02:19:00.000-08:00

29-02-2012: the Designation propsal as prepared by snatta CHQ is as below:

2012-02-29T02:17:00.000-08:00

NE-9......Junior Engineer ( Telecom)
NE10......Junior Engineer( Grade-1)
NE-11.....Junior Engineer( Grade-II)
NE-12......Sr. Engineer Telecom
E1A..........J.T.O./ Asstt Manager

if any addition or alteration is proposed by you, please sent to the Snatta Krishnagar Mail. Id : kshsnatta@gmail.com within 01-03-2012 early morning.

29-02-2012: snatta krishnagar is trying hard for joining of the newly recruited TTA immediateley ....

2012-02-29T02:12:00.000-08:00

27-02-2012: BSNL to launch 7-inch tablet @ Rs 3250 to rival Aakash...........

2012-02-26T23:05:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: BSNL announced it would bring three tablets in partnership with Pantel, a company based in Noida. Of the three, the cheapest one will be sold for Rs 3,250, a few hundred rupees more than the commercial version of Aakash tablet.

The 7-inch tablet - BSNL Penta T PAD IS 701R - is powered by 1ghz processor and comes with 256MB RAM. It has a resistive screen and runs on Android operating software. The tablet will be sold along with special data plans and 3G services from BSNL.

The two other tablets are priced at Rs 10,999 and Rs 13,500. Both have capacitive screen, which has better touch sensitivity. These two tablets are also made by Pantel . Pantel website shows that the company has started a prebooking for all three. ..TOI

25-02-2012: CMD writes letter to ITS officers to return in BSNL& save BSNL & Its employees future......

2012-02-24T23:35:00.001-08:00

25-02-2012: keral Circle working meeting conducted successfully on 1902-2012.....

2012-02-24T23:33:00.000-08:00

23-02-2012: ETISALAT & Singhtel Decided to exit from indian operation..

2012-02-22T23:54:00.000-08:00

23-02-2012: BSNL eyes private sector to rebuild senior management team.....Click here...ET bueroeu

2012-02-22T23:52:00.001-08:00

KOLKATA: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) may be forced to tap the private sector to rebuild its senior management team with its recruitment rules failing to woo back executives who had left for the department of telecom (DoT) last year.
In November, a majority of the Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officers deputed to BSNL had opted for a transfer to the telecom department, where the pension is higher, robbing BSNL of its middle and top management. BSNL's effort to woo them back has failed to elicit any response
A top executive with direct knowledge of the matter told ET that the state-run telco's new recruitment rules are not acceptable to the ITS officers as moving back to BSNL would mean loss of seniority and lower compensation.
"Where is the logic in first giving ITS officers the option to return to DoT, and now urging them to return to BSNL with less pay and zero protection on the seniority front," said two ITS officers who have returned to DoT. The new recruitment rules do not address these issues, they added.
Another turn-off stems from the decision to disqualify ITS officers in the 58-plus age group from applying for re-employment. This has sparked off rumours that the retirement age at BSNL may soon be revised to 58, from 60 at present.
BSNL had more than 1,300 ITS officers when it was carved out as a separate entity from DoT.
The stakes are high for the majority of the ITS officers who are of the rank of general manager in 45-55 age group.
If they opt to return to BSNL, they will have to first retire from government service and their pension will be linked to their current basic salary. But if they remain in central government service, their pension will be higher as it will be linked to their final basic salary.
"The ITS officers have sought several clarifications on issues like compensation, seniority and pension impact in the new recruitment rules. We expect more people will opt for re-employment once BSNL clears the air on these issues," said a BSNL director directly involved with the hiring exercise.
In a related development, the interior ministry has dismissed the telecom department's plea to move redundant ITS officers in the 58-plus age group to the surplus cell under the department of personnel. It is learnt to have questioned the rationale of declaring a sizeable number of senior BSNL officers as surplus when nearly 1,000 senior managerial slots remain vacant in the telco. A majority of these officers are in the rank of BSNL circle heads....ET

18-02-2012: FM wants Sibal to seek Plan panel's nod for Rs 20K cr NOFN...Initially, the broadband project will be executed by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and other institutions like RailTel. Later, PowerGrid and Gas Authority of India would also be made partners.....PTI..

2012-02-17T22:49:00.000-08:00

Rejecting the Telecom Ministry's proposal for fast tracking Rs 20,100 crore National Optical Fibre Network (NOFN) by according it the status of a non-Plan scheme, Finance Ministry has advised telecom minister Kapil Sibal to obtain the Plan panel's clearance for the project...."...a new scheme ... with an outlay of Rs 20,100 crore over a period of three years, whether under Plan or non-Plan side, required the same kind of administrative and financial approvals. Keeping this expenditure under Plan will not, therefore, cause procedural delays," finance minister Pranab Mukherjee said in a letter to Sibal.

The finance minister was responding to telecom minister's request to allocate funds for NOFN from non-Plan side to mitigate chances of delays in funding for the scheme which involves approval at various levels.
The Cabinet in October had approved NOFN scheme and creation of SPV to execute it.
Initially, the broadband project will be executed by state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and other institutions like RailTel. Later, PowerGrid and Gas Authority of India would also be made partners.
The fund management after allocation for this scheme will be done by Universal Service Obligation Fund. Administrator N Ravi Shankar of USOF has been made CEO of special purpose vehicle formed by cabinet to execute the project.
The Finance Minister said that continued funding of USOF expenditure from Plan side is based on the fact that the expenditure is development in nature and creation of such network will foster empowerment of rural masses.
"Such developmental expenditure should appropriately be met from Plan side." Mukherjee said.
He added that rural telecom connectivity including rural teledensity and broadband coverage is one of the six components of Bharat Nirman that are part of the Plan expenditure, except USOF.
"The expenditure of USOF has also been brought under Plan discipline in BE (Budget Estimates) 2011-12 to maintain this uniformity in consultation with Planning Commission," Mukherjee said.
The finance minister asked Sibal to modify the funding arrangement with the approval of Cabinet so that the expenditure on the scheme for creation of Optical Fibre Network for Broadband Connectivity to Panchayats can be met from the Plan allocations.
Mukherjee in this communication also asked the telecom minister to instruct the Department of Telecommunications to send the projections of funds for the scheme to Planning Commission for schedule allocation in Budget estimates 2012-13......hindusthan times

18-02-2012: DoT for one-time fee on excess spectrum on prospective basis... such moves may relief 10, 000 crore to BSNL..........media news

2012-02-17T22:36:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The telecom department (DoT) has dropped plans to impose a one-time charge retrospectively on incumbent telcos such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and BSNL for all second-generation airwaves they hold in excess of 6.2 MHz, according to an internal government note reviewed by ET.

Instead, the DoT plans to impose this fee on a prospective basis for the remaining period of the licences of these companies. However, it has asked the Union Cabinet to take final call on this issue.

The move is expected to offer relief to the tune of Rs 10,00 crore to BSNL, while Bharti Airtel may save around Rs 8,000 crore, Vodafone Essar about Rs 5,000 crore and Idea Cellular close to Rs 2,000 crore, industry executives tracking the development said.

This marks an about-turn by the department. In December 2011, the Telecom Commission, the highest decision making body of the DoT, had cleared Trai's suggestion that telcos be charged retrospectively for their 2G holdings beyond the 6.2 MHz limit.

Sector regulator Trai had suggested that incumbents be charged Rs 4,572 crore for every MHz they held above this limit on a pan-India basis. Incumbents had threatened to go to court over this one-time fee as its implementation would have forced them to shell out over Rs 17,000 crore.

The Telecom Commission had ruled that incumbents pay either the administrated price set by Trai, or the price discovered in the 2010 sale of 3G airwaves, whichever was higher in that particular region. This would have increased the industry outgo to Rs 25,000 crore.

According to an internal DoT note that was presented to several ministries, the department now plans to link the prospective fee to the prices fetched in the upcoming 2G auctions following the cancellation of 122 licences by the Supreme Court.

For instance, if one unit of 2G spectrum is sold for say Rs 2,000 crore on a pan-India basis, this works to Rs 100 crore per year, since bandwidth is allotted for a 20-year period. So, an incumbent mobile phone company whose licence is valid for five more years (2017) must pay up Rs 500 crore during this period for every unit of airwaves it holds nationally beyond the 6.2 MHz limit.

Earlier this week, telecom minister Kapil Sibal when announcing a slew of policy changes had ducked the controversial issue of imposing a one-time fee on telcos. Sibal said that matters relating to pricing of spectrum and one-time fee had been deferred without divulging details.

If the Cabinet approves the department's plans of imposing this one-time fee prospectively, it will be yet another boost to incumbents, after the recent policy changes announced by Sibal.

On Wednesday, Sibal had extended an olive branch to older telcos by announcing that the maximum airwaves that companies can hold, also known as the prescribed limit, has been enhanced to 8 MHz in all regions except Delhi and Mumbai, where the cap is at 10 MHz.

"However, all operators can acquire more than the prescribed limit in the open market through auctions, subject to the condition that they don't own more than 25% of all bandwidth in the region," he had added.

Providing further relief to companies such as Bharti, Vodafone and BSNL, whose bandwidth holdings are higher than the revised limits in certain regions, Sibal had said that these companies will have to surrender their excess holdings only when their licences come up for renewal. ...... ET Beurou

16-02-2012: GM/ Behrampore Sri C.R. Mahapatra will take the charge of GM/ krishnagar SSA w.e.f. 01-03-2012....

2012-02-16T08:59:00.000-08:00

16-02-2011: Telcos operating profit to rise 5% in 2 years: Crisil...PTI

2012-02-15T22:35:00.000-08:00

MUMBAI: Rating agency Crisil today said the operating profits of the large telecom players will improve by 5 per cent in the next two years on the back of reduced intensity in competition.

"Crisil believes that operating profitability of the large mobile players rated by it will improve by 500 basis points (bps) or 5 per cent in the next two years," it said.

The agency, which tracks Bharti AirTel, Vodafone and Tata Teleservices among others, said the improvement in operating profit will be driven by reduced competition, improved pricing power and increasing revenue from value-added services such as data and 3G.

"We estimate the operating profits of our large rated players to improve by up to 300 bps (3 per cent), aided by future hikes in tariffs. The margins will improve further by up to 200 bps (2 per cent) over the medium term on account of increasing revenue from data, 3G and other value-added services," Crisil Ratings director Pawan Agrawal said.

The contribution of value-added services to revenues is estimated to rise to nearly 18 per cent from the present 11 per cent, he said in the report.

The competitive intensity in the sector began to come down in mid-2011, as the large players hiked tariffs in select circles, which will be further enhanced with the recent cancellation of the 122 2G licences by Supreme Court.

As to reduction in average capital expenditure, the report said there will be an average reduction of 30 per cent over the medium-term in the average capex of large players, compared to capex in the last three years.

"This is because most of these players have already achieved high population coverage and have outsourced a large parts of their passive infrastructure requirements."

However, the rating agency noted that uncertain regulatory environment remained as a business risk.

"The regulatory environment, a key element in the assessment of business risk profile, remains uncertain for mobile operators. Critical outstanding issues pertain primarily to spectrum pricing and allocation. Any adverse changes in regulations may lead to higher than anticipated cash outflows," Ratings head Sudip Sural said

16-02-2012: decision of CEC held in RTTC , Jaipur.......................click here

2012-02-15T22:30:00.000-08:00

Minutes of the CEC meeting held on 12.02.2012 at RTTC, Jaipur

The meeting was chaired by All India President Shri Manish Samadhiya. The meeting started with the traditional welcoming of all the CHQ members. The stage was beautifully coordinated by Shri Rajendra from Rajasthan. The meeting lasted till 5.30 P.M. The following decisions and resolutions were unanimously passed by the CEC.

On 30% fitment issue, it was decided by the CEC that other than the court case already filed in the Hon. CAT at Chandigarh, other options such as approaching the other Unions viz. NFTE, FNTO etc would be explored. The CHQ will vigorously pursue on this issue with the management through these unions.
On the issue of JTO LICE, it was unanimously decide by the CEC to exhaust all the options to achieve the conduct of examination by incorporating the latest vacancies upto the year 2012.
On court cases, it was decided unanimously that no Circle will file case on any issue related to the TTAs without prior intimation and permission from CHQ. Before preparing for court case Circles will intimate CHQ about the details and merits of the case and seek prior permission from CHQ.
On functioning of CHQ, it was unanimously decided to elect two new office bearers to the post of ORGANISING SECRETARY by the CEC. The organizing secretaries will coordinate with Circles Office Bearers for better dissemination of information. All the Circle Office Bearers may communicate with organizing secretaries for suggestions.
Shri Pawan Meena from Rajasthan and Shri Anup from CTD were elected unanimously by the CEC to the post of Organizing Secretary.

The CEC meeting ended with the vote of thanks by Sh. Dharmendra Verma General Secretary, SNATTA.
.

12-02-2012: all the execuitve associations competitively fight for the new comer and finally got it, but for the non-executives who are newer, what the trade unions are feeling....? what should they do..?

2012-02-12T02:26:00.000-08:00

12-02-2012: what the non-executive so called unions are doing...? can any one /all of them hear our shout..? we are the future of BSNL, but every trade union is found careless regarding these future..?

2012-02-12T02:21:00.000-08:00

12-02-2011: CEC in Rajasthan is going on today ...............

2012-02-12T02:15:00.002-08:00

12-02-2012:BSNL to issue 14.37 mn line purchase order by Feb-end...PTI

2012-02-12T02:15:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL will place the telecom equipment purchase order for 14.37 million lines by end of this month, a top company official said today.

"We are about to finish technical evaluation. Once we are done, we will go for financial bids. The purchase order will be issued by end of this month," BSNL CMD R K Upadhyay told PTI.

BSNL had invited bids for 14.37 million lines in July 2011 under phase 7 of its mobile network expansion in north, east and south zones.

Only bidders having a minimum turnover of Rs 8,000 crores in the last two years were allowed to participate in the bid.

"All the major vendors and known vendors have expressed their interest. We will come to know about financial estimates only after financial bids are closed," Upadhyay said.

According to a statement given by Telecom Minister Milind Deora in Parliament, leading players namely Ericsson, Huawei, ZTE, Alcatel Lucent and Nokia Siemens Network are in the race for this tender.

The 14.37 million lines tender floated by BSNL includes planning, financing, engineering, supply, installation, testing, commissioning and annual maintenance.

Bidder under this tender will be selected through e-tender process.

The last tender was finalised by the company under Phase 5 of its expansion in 2006 for 45 million lines which was later reduced to 14 million lines in 2007.

After this, the company floated two more tenders for 93 million in 2008 and 5.5 million lines in 2010 but both the tenders were later cancelled.

The 93 million line tender, estimated to be worth Rs 35,000 crore, was cancelled amid controversies over the lack of competition in the bidding process and complaints from various quarters that the capacity addition was too high for the company.

11-02-2012: BSNL starts undertaking outside works ..............IBN Live

2012-02-10T19:09:00.000-08:00

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will not be known for its telecom operations alone anymore. As part of its diversification, the Civil Wing of the BSNL has started to undertake outside works.

Agreements were signed for various projects costing Rs 300 crore in Kerala to be completed in a year time.

After the announcement of diversification in 2010, Kerala is in the highest position in terms of revenue and number of works. Kerala was the first state which immediately started undertaking other works after its announcement.

Owing to the advancement in technology and paucity of funds, the workload� of civil and electrical engineers had reduced in the telecom sector. It was at this juncture that the BSNL took the decision not to reduce the manpower, but to utilise it in another way, which had shown positive results in Kerala.

BSNL Chief Engineer (Civil) S Harikumar said that the Civil Wing was constituted for carrying out the works of telecom. Later, when the infrastructure of all the telecom units got stagnated, it has been decided to share the expertise to the outside world, he said. BSNL has already completed the works of two buildings of Institute of Human Resource Development (IHRD) in Kanhangad and Kottarakkara.

The building of the School of Behavioural Science of MG University and a block of Super Specialty Centre Hospital at Puthuppally also figure in the list of completed works.

Another major work entrusted to the BSNL is the renovation of 11 stadiums in the state at a cost of `110 crore before the commencement of National Games.

The works of Gulathi Institute of Finance Taxation, Anert, Rajiv Gandhi Aviation Academy, Intellectual Property Rights Insitute at Cusat and modernisation of treasuries were also entrusted to the BSNL.

According to S J Vijaya Das, executive civil engineer and coordinator of the outside works, the green building concept has also been undertaken by the civil wing. Several government offices are coming forward to implement the concept and already Anert and Gulathi Institute of Finance Taxation signed an agreement in this regard.

�Harikumar said the BSNL provides end-to-end consultancy for projects such as design, architecture and supervision. The works will be awarded through tender either by the BSNL or the agency entrusting the works.

�In the present circumstances, BSNL can go only for works costing `300 as the Civil Wing also looks after the maintenance of the existing structure of telecom. BSNL Kerala is planning to undertake construction activities to the tune of ` 500 crore in the coming years, he said.

�BSNL has given direction to all the divisions to undertake outside work to justify the overall establishment cost of the Civil Wing.

It has also been informed that taking up external works on large scale has become a need of the hour as survival of BSNL Civil Wing depends on the amount of the external works undertaken.

11-02-2012: DS met GM/KSH and appealed for the following...

2012-02-10T19:07:00.000-08:00

1) Mobile connection to be gioven as per order of Corporate office. and the TTAs are top priority to get this.... as they are mostly work loaded
2) A new TTA recruited and conpleted induction training. But He is not being allowed to join as his PVR is not recieved. we the 2007 & 2008 batch were faced the same fate and were not allowed and many of us even are still affected so many months in service.
However we approched GM with correct justification to accept the joining of the new TTA before PVR so that he should get the benefit of prior appointment.
GM accepted and told the TTA to apply for joining. We hope the case will be sorted soon by appreciation of GM/KSH.

11-02-2012: Confirmation order of tapas sarkar TTA/NVD issued ...........

2012-02-10T18:55:00.000-08:00

09-02-2012: President snatta CHQ submitted memorundum to Hon"ble sri R.K.Upadhyaya , CMD , BSNL on 04-02-2012

2012-02-08T22:54:00.000-08:00

SNATTA-Aiming for a

better tomorrow

website: www.snatta.org (Regd. No.- DRFS/152) email: snattachq@gmail.com

SANCHAR NIGAM ASSOCIATION OF TELECOM TECHNICAL ASSISTANTS

(An Association of All India BSNL-TTAs)

Regd. Office: 1414 Sec-8 Faridabad Haryana-121006

President General Secretary

Manish Samadhiya Dharmendra Verma

lndore, M.P. Jamnagar, Gujarat,

mobile: 09479723569 ph: 09427210272

e-mail: manish.samadhiya@gmail.com e-mail: daverma@bsnl.co.in

SNATTA/CMD/Grievances/02 Date: 04.02.2012.

To,

Shri R.K. Upadhyay

Chairman Cum Managing Director

BSNL

New Delhi

Subject: Grievances of Direct Recruited Telecom Technical Assistants, regarding.

Respected Sir,

We the Dr TTAs (Telecom Technical Assistant) recruited in this benign concern since the formation of BSNL i.e. Oct. 2000 feel very proud to work with the nation’s telecom giant. It is well known to all that the TTA recruited after formation of BSNL are possessing Engineering Diploma as a minimum qualification and many are holding Bachelors as well as Masters degree. We all are facing some heart burning issues, which are hereby listed for your kind perusal and we are hopeful for a solution with your kind intervention.

Reduction in pay to the DRTTAs recruited on and after 1.1.2007 due to 2nd Wage Revision: After 2^nd wage revision TTAs recruited on or after Jan-2007 have been in loss and they should have got benefited like in the case of DR-JTOs. Though we are still of the view that the 30% fitment given by 2nd wage revision should be extended to all the employees in BSNL who were working till the date of implementation, if any special dispensation is given to the executives other than 30% fitment to compensate the loss in salary due to 2nd wage revision the similar special dispensation without any prejudice and dilution must be given to the non executive (DRTTAs) who are also facing loss in salary and allowances due to 2nd wage revision

Early conduct of JTO LICE with latest vacancies: We regret to say that no promotional avenues have been provided for this young working brigade. Since recruitment (Yr 2000 onwards) no body got any promotion by either way resulting in moral dropping and de motivation .We all are working in all the areas whether it is Core technical / technical or non-technical in full swing with the expectation that the vertical growth will be considered.

I request you to kindly issue orders to conduct the JTO LICE by counting the latest vacancies i.e. up to 2012 so that all the eligible candidates as per the JTO RR 2001 can appear in the departmental competitive examination.

Transfer Under Rule-8: The TTAs who have sought to have transfer under Rule-8 for intra circle and inter circle may be considered, Here I would like to bring to your notice that recently a large number of departmental TTA’s have been recruited and are undergoing training in various telecom training centers. I request you to kindly consider the request transfers of TTA’s under Rule-8 for which the information is already available with the corporate office.

We shall be highly obliged for the favours and assure you of our best cooperation in the interest of BSNL.

Thanking you

Yours Sincerely

Manish Samadhiya

President SNATTA

07-02-2012:2G cancellations may prove windfall for BSNL ...Media News..

2012-02-07T00:57:00.000-08:00

CHENNAI: The Supreme Court order cancelling 2G licences issued in 2008 may turn out to be a blessing for the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited in the State. The telecom service provider is planning to cash in on the verdict by working on a strategy to teleport an estimated 60 lsakh subscribers who are likely to be affected by the verdict.
“The verdict will tilt the balance in favour of the State-owned company,” said a BSNL source.
Earlier, BSNL number portability was hit hard with around 2.2 lakh customers porting out and just 92,243 porting in. “The ratio was 1:5 then. We have now succeeded in bringing it to 1:1.6,” the source said.
Interestingly, the employees union has welcomed the Supreme Court order and attributed the success to the union’s effort in exposing the scam. K Govindaraj, Chennai Circle secretary of the BSNL Employees Union, said the company is working on a strategy to enrol the subscribers hit by the 2G verdict.
State secretary of BSNL Employees Union S Chellappa added that a joint action meeting was held on Friday hailing the Supreme Court order. Measures to be taken to woo consumers from Idea, Tata and Uninor were also discussed. “Though the court has given four months’ time, the BSNL will make special efforts to woo the five crore subscribers who are likely to be affected. In Tamil Nadu, we expect it will be above 65 lakh,” he added.
To a query on whether the BSNL has adequate resources to welcome such a huge number of subscribers, he said the company was equipped to handle more subscribers......Courtsey..IBN LIVE

03-02-2012: former All India secretary general B.T. E.F. & ex Sr SDe Sri Manas Mukherjee attanded our Conference Meeting on 08-01-2012..photos....

2012-02-03T01:20:00.000-08:00

03-02-2012: DS snatta Krishnagar issued letter on 03-02-2012 to GM /KSH to provide prepaid GSM connection to the DRTTAs as per letter of corprate office.......

2012-02-03T00:13:00.000-08:00

03-02-2012: ultimately JTO/TRANS/KSH bent from his comment & said sorry for issuing unnecessary letter to the TTAs......

2012-02-03T00:07:00.000-08:00

JTO/TRANS/KSH for the last two months was issuing letter to TTAs of Transmission section. we brought the matter ultimately to the notice of GM. GM/ KSH Accepted our point of veiw. all the administartive officers were also agreed that this type of letter is not necessary as it may create chaos for system & warned JTO /TRANS/ KSH not to issue such letter in future. JTO/TRANS/KSH ultimately said " sorry " for issuing the letter.

03-02-2012: Supreme Court Cancelled 122 2G Licences..................cortsey ET

2012-02-02T23:54:00.000-08:00

02-02-2012: Our SSA Body is Approved by CC/ snatta CHQ.........copy enclosed

2012-02-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

01-02-2012: our CGM retired on 31-03-2012........ CGM of CTD will take the charge of CGM /WBTC

2012-01-31T10:56:00.000-08:00

01-02-2012: court case of 30% update...........

2012-01-31T10:55:00.000-08:00

next date of hearing scheduled on 20-03-2012.

27-01-2012:BSNL publicity work under CBI lens for alleged irregularities.........media news

2012-01-26T19:57:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The CBI is probing alleged irregularities in advertisement work worth crores carried out through ineligible firms by public sector telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL).

Official sources said the move came following complaints received by the Central Vigilance Commission alleging wrongdoings in handling marketing and advertisement related work in the BSNL.

They said the irregularities included unauthorised appointment of a part-time Director in the BSNL and assigning advertisement related job to a non-empaneled and ineligible agency.

Considering the seriousness of the complaints, the Commission forwarded the matter to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for necessary action.

The CVC conducted a probe after receiving DoT's report in this regard. "There were several instances of criminal conspiracy and substantiated acts of commission and omission by certain BSNL officials. Hence, the Commission decided to refer this case to CBI for detailed investigation," a CVC official said.

"The BSNL gives advertisement contract worth several crores to various companies. The matter is of grave importance and needed to be probed further. CBI has initiated its investigation," he said.

The official added that several public relations agencies are empaneled in the DoT for advertisement and brand management.

He declined to give details of the actual amounts involved, names of the officials and the role of outdoor agencies. .......... Source..ET NEWS

26-01-2012: " MY INDIA MY PRIDE"................ WE LOVE OUR INDIA......

2012-01-25T21:49:00.000-08:00

23-01-2012: We remember & salute the Patriotism of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose .....

2012-01-23T04:37:00.000-08:00

23-01-2012: HC rejects BSNL's decision to withhold telecom work from Starnet...pti

2012-01-23T04:31:00.000-08:00

State telecom major BSNL's decision against awarding its contract to a private firm for setting up a wireless broadband network in Haryana due to failure to give its performance guarantee from an Indian scheduled bank, has been struck down by the Delhi High Court.

While setting aside the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's decision to withdraw its letter of intent (LoI) for awarding the work to Starnet Communications Pvt Ltd, a bench of justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Rajiv Shakdher also imposed a cost of Rs 50,000 on the state enterprise.

"We are of unequivocal view that the action of the respondent terminating the LoI of the petitioner on the ground of non-furnishing of a Performance Bank Guarantee (PBG) from an Indian Scheduled Bank is clearly unsustainable and has to be quashed," the bench said.

The court gave its order on the firm's plea against cancellation of the LoI, saying the LoI nowhere stipulated that PBG had to be given from an Indian scheduled bank only.

The bench also said once a company is successful in the tender, the terms of the bid cannot be modified as it would amount to an "ambush".

"We are of the view that once the terms of a tender are finalised, the parties must strictly be bound by the same," the bench added.

In its plea, Starnet had contended that BSNL had encashed its bid security of Rs 20 lakh, despite the telecom major finding its PBG unacceptable.

The court directed BSNL to refund Rs 20 lakhs to Starnet, saying "encashment of bid security amount and return of the PBG are invalid" and inconsistent.

20-01-2012:GSM operators add 7.5 mln users in Dec.....ET News

2012-01-20T04:02:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: GSM operators added 7.55 million new subscribers in December, taking the total GSM user base to 639.64 million in the country, according to the COAI data released today.

GSM operators had added 6.68 million in November and the GSM subscriber base was at 632.08 million, the data by the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) showed.

Idea Cellular added the most 2.39 million new subscribers in December taking its subscriber base to 106.38 million. In previous month, too, the company had led the pack by adding 2.17 million users.

The largest GSM player Bharti added 960,000 subscribers, taking its total to 175.65 million users. The market share of the company dropped marginally to 27.46 per cent in December compared to 27.64 per cent in November.

New telecom player Uninor added 2.12 million new customers during the month compared to 1.86 million in November.

The second largest Vodafone Essar added 900,000 users in December against 920,000 addition in November last year. The subscriber base of the company stood at 147.74 million in December 2011. Its market share dropped to 23.10 per cent in December from 23.23 per cent in the previous month.

State-owned BSNL and MTNL added 420,000 and 44,664 new users, taking their total to 92.56 million and 5.44 million, respectively.

Aircel added 680,000 customers taking its subscriber base to 61.64 million.

Circle-wise, the highest addition was in Maharashtra where 1.15 million new users were added in December. The circle, among the total 22 circles, Uttar Pradesh (East) had the highest number of GSM users at 53.88 million.

20-01-2012: BSNL seeks over Rs 12,000 cr loan for 'survival'...........(ET News)

2012-01-20T03:58:00.001-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-owned BSNL, which is fast running out of cash to pay employee salaries, is looking to raise over Rs 12,000 crore long term loan, as it has depleted its reserves and desperately requires finding to meet upcoming capital and operating expenditures.

Executives in BSNL management admitted that the company was looking at banks to offer the PSU a lifeline, but denied reports that it had appointed SBI Capital Markets to arrange the loans.

ET had reported last month that BSNL, that was sitting on cash pile of over Rs 40,000 crore till March 2008, and was using its interest income to buttress its profits, may soon be forced to seek a government bailout to survive.

The telco is also learnt to have asked the government to fast track the process of refunding it about Rs 8,000 crore as the telecoms department had approved its plan to surrender its wireless broadband access spectrum in most circles. In the interim period, the telco wants a one-time grant equivalent to this amount to pay for its GSM tender for 14 million lines, expand its 3G offering and meet employee wage bills.

It had also sought about Rs 1,500 crore support from the Universal Service Obligation Fund to sustain its rural landline operations, a move that was turned down by the government.

BSNL had recorded a whopping loss of Rs 6,384 crore for the year-ended March 11, capping a series of dismal results in the last four years that saw the erstwhile monopoly being reduced to a bit player in the fast-growing market.

Once considered as jewel among the India's state run companies, BSNL began the current financial year with reserves of just Rs 2500 crore. Off this, BSNL had a bank deposit of only Rs 840 crore while the rest is current account and being used for running its businesses.

But in March 2010, BSNL had cash reserves to the tune of Rs 30,343.40 crore.

"Our employee costs account fro 46.5% of the company's total revenues. No company can survive if employee costs eats away a bulk of revenues," BSNL's chairman and managing director RK Upadhyay had told ET last month. On revenues of Rs 29,687 crore, the company has incurred employee cost of Rs 13,791 crore during the last fiscal, as per its balance sheet, a copy of which was reviewed by ET.

Upadhyay had further added that the telco's cash reserves had collapsed as it paid out close to Rs 19,000 crore for 3G and wireless broadband access (BWA) spectrum in 2009. BSNL did not take part in the auctions, but was mandated to match the winning bid in all circles. This resulted in the telco paying up Rs 10,186.58 crore for 3G airwaves and a further Rs 8,314 crore for BWA airwaves.

BSNL also attempted to reduce its employee numbers by a third by offering about 100,000 employees a voluntary retirement scheme late last year, but the proposal failed to take off after severe opposition from its unions.

In 2009, a panel headed by Sam Pitroda, advisor to the prime minister on public information infrastructure and innovations, had advocated that loss-making BSNL take the VRS route to prune its near 2.77 lakh headcount by a third.

BSNL's last order for mobile equipment was in 2006, when it issued a tender for 45 million lines, but this was eventually reduced to 22 million lines after former telecoms minister A Raja had intervened. In 2010,BSNL had cancelled its 93 million lines contract, the world's largest for telecom equipment.

Following the junking of the 93 million lines contract, which had run into several controversies, including court cases and a probe by the Central Vigilance Commission, BSNL subsequently launched a tender for 5.5 million lines, which barred Chinese vendors initially, only to re-launch the bidding process to include the same, leading to protests from Western bidders resulting in the eventual cancellation of this tender.

After this, the telco had attempted a fresh tender for 15 million GSM lines, and Chinese participation in the bidding process has now raised fresh security concerns from the home ministry and the IB, forcing it to delay placing orders yet again.

20-01-2012:BSNL looking to raise up to Rs 15,000 crore; hires SBI Capital.....media news(ET)

2012-01-20T03:56:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL, which is mulling various options to raise funds to meet day-to-day requirements, has hired SBI Capital to arrange a long-term loan of up to Rs 15,000 crore.

BSNL is looking at various options to raise funds. The company has hired SBI Capital which will help the PSU to raise a long-term loan of amount ranging between Rs 12,000 crore to Rs 15,000 crore for a period of 5 to 7 years, sources with the direct knowledge of the development said.

It may also go for a loan from Department of Telecom for Rs 5,000 crore on interest. The company is also planning to lease out its tower and network bandwidth for fund raising.

The company has already sent a proposal to DoT to surrender its BWA spectrum in few of the circles seeking a refund of over Rs 8,500 crore, sources added.

BSNL had paid over Rs 8,500 crore in 2010 for acquiring BWA spectrum and the PSU was not given a choice to pick and choose circles as it was made to match the highest bid received for each circle in the auction.

The company was allotted non-standardised band of BWA spectrum for 21 circles.

The PSU had registered a loss of over Rs 6,000 crore for 2010-11, mainly due to high staff cost and payments made for acquiring 3G and BWA spectrum.

The company is already looking to cut costs by outsourcing its Telecom tower management and by auctioning spare fiber optic bandwidth to earn additional revenue.

BSNL, has been struggling to keep pace with private sector rivals such as Bharti Airtel and Vodafone India, which have added subscribers at a much faster pace.

The company provides telecommunications services in 20 of India's 22 telecom service areas, and had about 96 million mobile phone subscribers and 23.31 million fixed line users on its network at the end of November.

The company is operating and maintaining its 60,000 telecom towers and networks.

Further, as part of its cost-cutting efforts, BSNL has also proposed slashing its staff strength by a third by offering voluntary retirement. The proposal is currently with the government.

18-01-2012: "CEC" snatta CHQ will be held on 12 th FEB ,2012....at joypur, Rajasthan

2012-01-18T06:47:00.000-08:00

18-01-2012: PSUs like BSNL & others may loose " MINIRATNA" status......media news(ET)

2012-01-18T06:43:00.000-08:00

Several PSUs like BSNL, HMT, Hindustan Paper and Hindustan Newsprint may lose Miniratna' status, as they have slipped on performance parameters set to retain the coveted
Taking a stringent view, the Department of Public Enterprises (DPE) has directed all the administrative ministries to "re-examine status of existing Miniratna public sector units [PSUs] under their control with respect to the laid-down criteria
A Miniratna PSU should have made profit for three successive years and a positive net worth, as per the DPE norms.

A comprehensive report has been sought before Monday, from the ministries and departments which have administrative control over the PSUs.
While there are 67 Miniratnas, several of them including BSNL, Hindustan Paper Corporation and Hindustan Newsprint have run into financial difficulties and are incurring losses. They may lose the status which gives them autonomy to invest up to Rs 500 crore without seeking government approval.
"In case any of these Miniratnas does not fulfill the laid down criteria, order for divestment of its Miniratna status may be immediately issued...," the DPE directive said.
Besides, the appointment of minimum three non-official directors is one of the pre-conditions for exercise of Miniratna powers, the DPE said.
"If minimum three non-official directors are not on the boards of a Miniratna company, the proposal for appointment of requisite number of non-functional directors may be furnished," the directive said. ET News position linked with their autonomy.

18-01-2012: BSNL issued order of extending provision GSM for non-executive on the need basis

2012-01-18T06:31:00.000-08:00

18-01-2011:IDA increase order of 4.7% issued by BSNL w.e.f. 01-01-2012

2012-01-18T06:29:00.000-08:00

15-01-2012: Government may subsidize mobile bills in rural areas....media news(ET)

2012-01-15T05:44:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The Planning Commission has proposed that the government pay 20% of all mobile bills that are less than Rs 300 a month for customers in rural India by dipping into funds set aside for providing subsidized telephony.

The Planning Commission had sent the proposal to the Prime Minister's Office, which in turn has asked the telecoms department to study the feasibility of the proposal. The telecoms department must submit its response by 17 January and ET reviewed a copy of this communication.

The planning commission has also suggested that all rural customers who take up a mobile connection be given a one-time subsidy of Rs 250 from the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

All telcos pay 5% of their annual revenues towards the USOF, that is aimed at subsidizing rural telecom infrastructure and the unutilized amount in the corpus is estimated to be well over Rs 25,000 crore. The telecoms department has projected that this will increase to Rs 36,000 crore by 2013.

The Planning Commission has also pointed out that the USO levy has accumulated to a large corpus over the years and this could be used for providing direct subsidy to the amm aadmi.

Justifying the need for this subsidy, the planning commission has said that rural telecom penetration was only 30% despite the country witnessing a phenomenal expansion on mobile telephony. Its letter also highlights that 30% of the monthly bills of mobile customers go to the government in the form of various levies.

India has about 900 million cellphone connections of which a third are in rural India. According to telecoms regulator Trai, rural India had about 303 million cellphone connections at the end of November-2011 and a tele-density of 37%. In comparison, urban India had a tele-density of 167%.

Leading telcos said they were not aware of the proposal, but many operators pointed out that the industry had been demanding a reduction in the USO levy for years as the corpus is sufficient to subsidize the rollout of communications infrastructure in rural areas.

An executive with a leading telco said the telecoms department must discuss the proposal with the industry before submitting its reply to the PMO. This executive further added that abolishing this levy would lead to a 5% saving in mobile bills to all 900 million users in the country.

An executive with another telco said the industry had in the past suggested several initiatives to utalize the USO levy and these too must be considered along with the Planning Commission recommendation.

In October 2011, the Union Cabinet had cleared the 20,000-crore project to build a national broadband network to take high-speed internet to the hinterlands. Prior to that, the telecom commission, the apex decision making body of the department, had approved this project to build this network that would connect all the gram panchayats utilising the USOF. A similar amount of investment was likely from the private sector towards this initiative.....ET BUEREUA

12-01-2011: SNATTA/Krishnagar former divisional committee addressed to the members by inaugeral speech at the district conference....

2012-01-12T07:53:00.000-08:00

SANCHAR NIGAM ASSOCIATION OF TELECOM TECHNICAL ASSISTANT

KRISHNAGAR SSA , DISTRICT CONFERENCE, 08^TH JAN, 2012

Dear friend,

We the DRTTAs are at the Brittled phase of a CPSU. A critical situation is going on in BSNL by the policy of GOVT & its toothless & inefficient , corrupted top management who are running the BSNL. VRS are at the door step but VRS may not be adopted before the end of this financial year. Suddenly Govt. started to repatration process of ITSs to DOT and near about more than 400 ITSs had returned to DOT. Rests are waiting. But 1700+ ITSs have no space to sit in DOT. Again suddenly BSNL adopted a policy for lateral entry of those ITSs with higher scale. It is learnt that 700 ITSs may return to BSNL in such way after securing their pension field . In no psu there are such huge number of Gr. “ A “ officers. Where is the need ? this is done not for the purpose of BSNL but for the need of ITSs. We should ask Govt. when VRS is being adopted for huge no of non-executive then why ITSs are being returned ? comrade we have to protest. Comrade our landline business is now rationally reduced and we shall not be surprised that more than 12000 crore on an average is spent on landline business but only about 2000 + crore BSNL get annually. Why BSNL will not trim landline operation or should get the balance support from govt. Govt denied to allot “ national optical fibre project “ to BSNL only but included other PSUs and private players in this. Not only that the USOF fund are also not being given only to BSNL although social obligation met by BSNL only. We protest all this . we also thanks to Govt to accept in principle for refund of wimax spectrum charge. We appeal Govt. of INDIA to take positive steps to run the PSU & save the PSUs as well as BSNL.

We appeal all the trade union and the associations to wake up and give the right path to save BSNL excluding the politics. We the employees may also be able to save BSNL to some extent.

We found reckless corruption not only in BSNL but throughout INDIA starting from telecom scam. We have our patriotism & social consciousness. Our unity feels the need of the hour, thus support Anna Hazare ji “ s INDIA AGAINST CORRUPTION” movement.

A lot of executives were given the benefit for more than one year ago, & now another lot of directly recruited executives pay reductions settled by this month. At last our bad luck remains unsettled. Most of the trade unions have least attention to the new comer of BSNL as we have the least head count but with excessive pressure of work. Some of the members asked them for right answer of the fact but nothing spelt correctly. Rightly snatta decided to go before Court. BSNL had ultimately submitted its reply before court. Now the court case really started. Next date of hearing extended to 30 th jan, 2012. When no one is ready to respond to our shout then it is the only way we may go. We hope for the best.

We don’t know profit & loss to support someone but its true we are success to show that we are not deaf & dumb.

JTO LICE is going so critical. A mass number JTO lice posts were saved by the untired effort of CHQ & still the fight is on.

Designation change for the TTAs are yet to be adopted in BSNL. we feel designation may increase our morality to some extent. When we are giving more than the job of a TTA then why we are defined by this.

Recently BSNL has issued order to extend the facility of informal meeting to all trade union securing 15% of total vote and hence the SNATTA will also take part in informal meeting with management through our alliance partner NFTE.

The DRTTAs who have joined later due to PVR should have the date of increment on the date resume of induction training but in these SSA we are deprived although so many SSAs & circles got this. We will fight for this.

Divisional committee was formed for the last year. We launched our own website> www.snattakrishnagarwb.blogspot.com <of our SSA , our SSA Body after long persuation succeeded to get confirmation letter within 8 months after probation period. the case of security money is under process. In transmission section, we are still fighting to secure our prestige. Comrade we all are the employees to serve BSNL & the Nation. By no means we are ready to compromise with our prestige. But comrades several times divisional body could have nothing to do when no members are placing the proposal service upliftment, etc etc, divisional body had several times intimated regarding these. Proper input is required. mind that some time lesser power is more than greater power.

friend, we are snattaians supporting snatta only from morality excluding all personnal interest in spite of having all the red eye of the trade unions. We are from own idealism which increase your personality , reflects your identity. So don’t be afraid of any kind of attack. Unity is our strength.

“SNATTA Jindabad”>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Thanks,

……………………………………….............Divisional committee, snatta/krishnagar

Our topics for Discussion in open session

“ how to improve BSNL Service with Minimum cost & maximum effort?”

12-01-2012: Decision accepted in the district conference. of krishnagar SSA........

2012-01-12T07:45:00.000-08:00

Decision accepted in the divisional conference:

1) Oppose the Govts anti-BSNL policy, protection should be given to BSNL to secure interest of PSU

2) Support anti-corruption movement

3) 30% fitment : sufficient support to the court case and at the same time persue the alliance partner to take up the case with management for earlier settlement.

4) JTO/LICE case is to be persued more aggressively with the alliance partner before management because the long delay in JTO LICE making frustration. Fight for the best.

5) Increment date for all the batchmate of induction training should be given as per unique policy on the date of resume of training. some cases in some SSA it was given but in Krishnagar SSA do not have. Bring it to management & persue it.

6) Designation change of TTAs

7) Pay scale upgradation of TTAs

8) Pending transfer cases to be sorted out sortly.

9) Better service of BSNL: various aspect were discussed, so many ideas collection of OSD, special care to high value customer, sufficient no of pcm to BBD DSLAM, billing problem, nabadwip tower problem etc included to promote service & earn revenue to be place before management.

10) Misc.

12-08-2011: Annual district conference meeting of snatta krishnagar were held on 08-01-2012 at krishnagar Main Exchange Building.

2012-01-12T03:15:00.000-08:00

Annual district conference meeting were held on 08-01-2012 at Krishnagar Main Exchange building. Most of the members were present in spite of having bad weather & inconvenience of Train accident at phulia Station. Meeting were delayed by this but response from all corner we found. this was the 2nd conference in our SSA. Meeting were arranged in a grand manner. Divisional Committee wished all the members with " happy New year greetings" & Diary etc. Meeting were scheduled in two phase one in Internal Session & next Open Session.

Sri Manas Mukherjee, retd Sr, SDE & former All India Secretary General BTEF , had attended the meeting.
the Meeting were concluded with thanks president. The accepted agenda of the meeting & the Photos & Inaugeral speech of SNATTA/ krishnagar Divisional committee & the new Committee formed will be uplpaded later.

05-01-2012: order of 5 additional increment for executives is issued...to reslve the reduction of emoluments of executives after 01-01-2007...

2012-01-05T07:43:00.000-08:00

Order of 5 additional increment for executives is issued...to reslve the reduction of emoluments of executives after 01-01-2007. The non-executives whose salary was also reduced . Now what for non-executives ?

05-01-2012:BSNL in talks with Inmarsat for satellite broadband services...business line

2012-01-05T07:29:00.001-08:00

New Delhi, Jan. 2:

London-based satellite services firm Inmarsat is in talks with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd to offer broadband services in the country.

According to BSNL sources, the talks are in advanced stages and both sides are looking at various business models and technical issues related to providing satellite-based broadband services.

“We have set up an internal team to examine technical and commercial issues relating to the proposed partnership with Inmarsat. Once finalised BSNL will be able to offer satellite-based broadband services using Inmarsat technologies in remote areas of the country. BSNL will also be able to meet the needs of the Defence forces through this,” said a BSNL official.

Inmarsat is a global satellite services provider and was earlier offering services in India through Videsh Sanchar Nigam Ltd. But this service was practically shut down after the Government divested majority stake in VSNL to the Tatas. Since then the London-based firm has been scouting for partners in India.

A number of local firms including BPL Mobile (which offers mobile services in Mumbai) and Dr J.K. Jain-promoted Jain Studios had earlier explored a partnership with Inmarsat. The UK firm had also applied on its own for Global Mobile Personal Communications by Satellite licence in India.

But the key issue which is coming in the way of Inmarsat's India strategy is the requirement of setting up an earth station in India. Security agencies have made it mandatory for satellite companies to have a local earth station if they wanted to offer services here.

According to industry estimates, this could cost $20-30 million but neither Inmarsat nor Indian players are willing to foot this bill. In the case of BSNL too, the Department of Telecom has told the PSU to set up the local gateway if it wants to partner with Inmarsat.

However, BSNL officials said that since security monitoring is a Government requirement, the funding for the same has to come from the Government.

“We are looking at how to meet the security requirement without spoiling the business case. Setting up a local gateway is an expensive proposition,” said the BSNL official.

Virtual gateway

One of the options being looked at by the company is to set up a virtual gateway. This would provide security agencies access to data flowing through the network and at the same time the cost of setting up a virtual station is less than a million dollars.

If the deal goes through, BSNL will be able to offer high speed broadband services on mobile devices using satellite technology.

A similar type of service was earlier planned by ISRO through a tie up with Bangalore-based satellite technology firm Devas Multimedia. But this deal was scrapped by the Government last year.

BSNL officials said that its proposed service with Inmarsat cannot be compared with the Isro-Devas deal because BSNL had all the licences required to offer telecom services.

03-01-2012: 3G roaming: BSNL accuses telcos of illegally adding subscribers.....BS news

2012-01-03T09:27:00.000-08:00

Courtsey Business standrd:
In more trouble for private telecom players, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) today accused them of acquiring 3G subscribers by entering into "illegal" inter-circle roaming agreements in circles without having designated spectrum.
In an application filed before TDSAT, state-run BSNL has alleged that operators Bharti, Vodafone, Idea, Tatas and Aircel are providing 3G services by "misrepresenting" the public on the "strength of illegal arrangements /agreements" entered by them.
"In some telecom service areas, without paying for 3G spectrum or investing a single penny in setting up telecom infrastructure, network etc are illegally acquiring and continue to acquire subscriber by misrepresenting that they can provide 3G services," said BSNL in its application filed today.

The PSU further said "such illegal roaming arrangements for providing 3G services to a subscriber of 2G telecom operator, through roaming is prohibited and against the terms and conditions of licence and roaming guidelines issued by DoT".
BSNL said that it was also against the National Telecom Policy of 1999.
It also alleged that the telecom operators "distorted the 3G auction conducted by DoT on April 19, 2010 by cartelisation and collusion and hence duped the state exchequer and BSNL of huge sum of money".
Contending that it suffered a huge loss on account of the illegal 3G roaming pact of the operators, BSNL requested the tribunal to "pass an interim order restraining the petitioners (operators) from providing 3G services to its subscribers where it has no authorisation to do so".
During the proceedings today before the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT), BSNL requested to be impleaded and make a party along with DoT in the ongoing matter, in which telcos have challenged the government's direction to stop their 3G inter circle roaming.
However, the TDSAT had said it would decided only after deciding on the preliminary objections on its jurisdiction raised by the DoT.
Additional Solicitor General AS Tankha appearing for BSNL submitted that that PSU was going to be affected very largely by the outcome of its hearing and it should be heard. He had also submitted that an application in this regard would be filed today only.
The Telecom Ministry has questioned the jurisdiction of telecom tribunal TDSAT on entertaining the petitions of five telecom operators, including Bharti Airtel and Vodafone, challenging the government's directive to stop 3G roaming agreements.
The telcos are to file their reply on BSNL's contention before the tribunal this week.

03-01-2012: Telecom sector: What to Expect in 2012...media news(ET)

2012-01-03T09:20:00.000-08:00

Courtsey : ET News
Call Rates

The New Year is expected to ring in higher call rates but with little improvement in service quality. Call rates in India crashed following intense competition since 2008 in anticipation of new players entering the market. In fact, players ranked sixth or below in any service area today incur a loss on almost every customer they have on the network.

Yet, with little or no investment capital or motivation, analysts expect companies will retain the benefits from higher pricing rather than expanding services aggressively.

An industry official said companies would also focus on revenue-generating customers and discontinue "useless" ones. So effectively the tables are set to turn; customers will chose the operator, but the service provider will also use discretion to offer services.

Katriar of E&Y said fringe players would continue to lie low, awaiting potential acquirers rather than adding subscribers thus leaving more business options in the hands of established

03-01-2012: We have met SDE / HRD on 03-01-2012 for earlier settlement of security refund case & arrangement of next DPC for the residual part of the DRTTAs.

2012-01-03T09:14:00.000-08:00

SDE /HRD assured to intiate earlier to refund the security money & the DPC will probably take place by this month.

03-01-2012: 30% fitment court case update........

2012-01-03T09:10:00.000-08:00

******BSNL ultimately submitted the reply to the Chandigarh CAT on 03-01-2012. Next date of hearing 30-01-2012.. detail will be uploaded later.....

03-01-2012: Annual District conference of SNATTA/krishnagar scheduled on 8th JAN 2012 at TRC hall...

2012-01-03T09:06:00.000-08:00

Annual District conference of SNATTA/krishnagar scheduled on 8th JAN 2012 at TRC hall, krishnagar Main Exchange Building at 10:30 am. The conference will strictly needs to be started at scheduled time , all the members are requested to come in time. further detail will be uploaded later. Members are requested to keep himself available on the day.

02-01-2012:BSNL Voted Best 3G Service Provider 2011 ......telecomnews

2012-01-02T09:10:00.001-08:00

BSNL Voted Best 3G Service Provider 2011

India’s only Pan India 3G service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is voted "Best 3G Service Provider year 2011" in India and emerge as clear winner with 69% votes from whole country while other operators share 31% votes from 3G users on www.telecomnewsindia.com website Survey. BSNL India gets Total 1024 (69%) votes while other major 3G service providers Airtel, Tata Docomo, Vodafone, Idea gets 108 (7%), 94 (6%), 89 (6%), 72 (4%) votes resp. Total 1483 readers participapted in poles with single vote policy.
There are many 3G Service providers who claim to offer 28* MBPS, 24* MBPS, 16* MBPS speed on 3G Network but

01-01-2012: "HAPPY NEW YEAR...2012"..............

2012-01-01T01:25:00.000-08:00

31-12-2011: 4.7 % IDA increase may be due w.e.f 01-01-2012....

2011-12-31T01:13:00.000-08:00

31-12-2011: we expect the better BSNL will be back in " NEW YEAR 2012"

2011-12-31T01:02:00.000-08:00

We all the young employees of BSNL wish all the best for BSNL . we hope 2012 will set up our next hope.

28-12-2011: BSNL may re-employ 700 nos Indian Telecom Service officers under 58 years.....media news

2011-12-28T20:31:00.000-08:00

KOLKATA: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd will consider for re-employment in senior management slots only officers of the Indian Telecom Service who have at least two years of service left, according to a senior company executive.

The teleco's new recruitment rules will exclude most of the 44-odd Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officers of the rank of chief general manager (CGM) from being considered for re-absorption, as they fall in the over-58 age group. The retirement age at BSNL is 60.

"It's pointless bringing in senior executives on board who have less than two years of service left. As a result, many ITS officers of the rank of CGM may not be eligible for re-employment as they are already over 58," a top company executive with direct knowledge of the matter said.

BSNL is likely to consider non-ITS industry professionals with finance and civil or electrical engineering background for these slots if suitable candidates are not available in the existing ITS pool, another senior executive said. Till date, all BSNL circle heads have been ITS officers.

BSNL had more than 1,300 ITS officers who were deputed to it some 11 years ago when the telco was carved out as a separate corporate entity from the Department of Telecom (DoT). But last month, barring 13 officers, the entire ITS cadre comprising executives of the ranks of DGM, GM and above opted to return to the telecom department, robbing BSNL of its middle and top management.

Subsequently, the BSNL board has been exploring ways to bring back 700 of the best ITS officers through an emergency recruitment exercise.

Under the new recruitment rules, ITS officers eligible for re-absorption in BSNL will retire from government service and be re-employed in the telco. And to induce them to quit government service and return to BSNL, DoT may take over their pension liability, a senior government official said.

Last month, a majority of the ITS officers opted for a transfer to the telecom department, where the pension is higher. Had the 1,300-odd ITS officers opted to stay back at BSNL, then under the old rules, they would have been absorbed with retrospective effect from October 1, 2000. In such a scenario, they would have lost out on 11 years of central government pension, despite being ITS officers on deputation in BSNL.

To address such concerns, ITS officers considered for re-employment in BSNL may be allowed to retire from government service as on current date. ...ET

27-12-2011:NFTE writes CMD to extend the aproval regarding the loss of emoluments for the emp0loyees after 01-01-2007 to the non-executives also. specially to DRTTAs...

2011-12-27T03:54:00.000-08:00

25-12-2011: HAPPY "CHRISTMASS DAY"............

2011-12-24T10:08:00.000-08:00

21-12-2011: Parliament reply of MOS Milind Deora regarding BSNL corruption & usage charge given by BSNL....on 21-12-2011...source PTI

2011-12-21T06:26:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: The government received a total of Rs 236.99 crore from BSNL and MTNL as spectrum usage charges for the first half (April-September) of the current fiscal, Parliament was informed today.

"Up to the second quarter ended on September 30, 2011, the government has received Rs 16.99 crore from MTNL and Rs 220 crore from BSNL as spectrum usage charges, totalling to Rs 236.99 crore," Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora informed the Lok Sabha today.

Telecom service providers have to pay a percentage of their adjusted gross revenue (AGR) to the government as spectrum usage charges.

Replying to another question, Deora informed that BSNL has sought support of Rs 9,306 crore per annum from the USOF toward the Rural Direct Exchange Lines (R-DEL) scheme following expiry of the current subsidy support of Rs 2,000 crore per annum given to BSNL for the period of three years from July 19, 2008, to July 17, 2011.

On another question related to cases of corruption reported in BSNL and MTNL, Deora said during the last three years and the current year, the total number of corruption cases reported in BSNL stood at 36, while it stood at 22 for MTNL.

"The nature of these cases are demanding and accepting illegal gratification, disproportionate assets, misappropriation," Deora said.

Punitive action, as prescribed under the rules, is taken against officers working in both companies that are found involved in such incidents. In addition to deterrent punitive action, preventive measures like inspection and training in vigilance matters are being adopted by both companies to eradicate such incidents, he said.

21-12-2011: Parliament reply of MOS Milind Deora regarding BSNL GSM tender....on 21-12-2011...source ET

2011-12-21T06:21:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: All major global telecoms gear vendors, including Ericsson, Nokia Siemens Networks and Huawei, have bid for Indian state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's mobile equipment tender, India's junior telecoms minister Milind Deora said on Wednesday.

Alcatel-Lucent and China's ZTE are the other companies that have bid for the tender floated to supply equipment for 14.37 million second and third generation (2G and 3G) GSM mobile lines, the minister told parliament in a written reply to questions from lawmakers.

BSNL, India's fifth-biggest mobile carrier by subscribers, invited bids last year for 5.5 million GSM lines but later scrapped the tender. The company earlier scrapped another tender for 93 million lines floated in 2008.

21-12-2011: GM/ krishnagar visited bethuadhari exchange on 20-12-2011......

2011-12-20T10:26:00.000-08:00

21-12-2011:GSM subscriber addition in NOV, 2011.......COAI & ET

2011-12-20T10:21:00.000-08:00

Bharti Airtel, the largest GSM player, added 0.96 million subscribers, taking its total to 174.69 million users. It had a market share of 27.64 per cent.

Vodafone Essar, with a 23.23 per cent market share, added 0.92 million new subscribers during the month, taking its subscriber base to 146.84 million at the end of November 2011.

State-owned BSNL and MTNL added 0.55 million and 33,666 new users, taking their total to 92.14 million and 5.39 million, respectively.

Aircel added 0.67 million customers taking its subscriber base to 60.95 million, while Uninor added 1.86 million new users to take its subscriber base to 34.18 million at the end of last month.

18-12-2011: BSNL firms up plan to wipe out rs 12,000-cr losses in three years...ET news

2011-12-18T05:56:00.000-08:00

HYDERABAD : Revival Measures

OBTAINING A REFUND of Rs 6,000 crore from the government by surrendering broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum and offering voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to around 1 lakh employees

DEVELOPING ON COMMERCIAL scale the huge land bank of hundreds of acres in prime locations across the country through PPP model

IMPROVING REVENUE and profits through value-added services

India's state-owned telecom provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) hopes to wipe out its losses of around Rs 12,000 crore over the next three years on the back of a series of revival measures being initiated now, its chairman and managing director Rakesh K Upadhyay told ET.

The key revival measures include obtaining a refund of Rs 6,000 crore from the government by surrendering broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum and offering voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to around 1 lakh employees that could result in around Rs 2,400 crore of savings per annum, he said.

Other measures include developing on commercial scale the huge land bank of hundreds of acres in prime locations spread across the country through public private partnership model and significantly improving the revenues and profits through value-added services.

The state-owned telco has registered a series of dismal results over the last last four years that saw the erstwhile monopoly being reduced to a bit player in the fast-growing market.

BSNL saw its overall revenue fall from Rs 39,715 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 38,053 crore in 2007-08 and further to Rs 35,812 crore in 2008-09, before falling to Rs 32,046 crore in 2009-10. Its fall from grace is best explained from the fact that its annual revenues were over the Rs 40,000-crore mark for the year-ended March 06.

The telco, which has tripled its net losses to around Rs 6,000 crore during the last fiscal, expects to arrest the losses at around this level during the current fiscal, taking the total losses to around Rs 12,000 crore by March 2012. "We expect the revival measures to help us wipe out the losses of around Rs 12,000 crore by March 2015," Upadhyay told ET.

Once considered as jewel among the India's state run companies, BSNL is facing an uphill task of meeting its fund requirement towards capital expenditure this fiscal as its cash and bank balance has reached to a critical level of Rs 2,500 crore.

Upadhyay said that the costs incurred for third generation ( 3G) and wireless broadband access spectrum had resulted in the company's cash reserves crashing to a mere Rs 2,500 crore by March 2011 from around Rs 40,000 crore few years. "Spectrum charges has really brought us badly down and made a serious dent in our cash reserves," Upadhyay added.

Another factor that led to depletion of reserves was capital expenditure incurred over the last few years, he said. On the PSU's survival in the backdrop of depleting reserves and mounting losses, he said, "We definitely do not need any bailout package from the government. But what we do need is adequate compensation from the government for our efforts in meeting social obligations as a state-owned company."

17-12-2011:Recovery of dues by BSNL and MTNL ...report " PIS bureau..)

2011-12-16T23:27:00.000-08:00

Shri Milind Deora, the Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology informed Rajya Sabha today in a written reply that the amounts realized by BSNL and MTNL from its customers during the year 2010-11 against the outstanding bills of previous years and bills issued during the year are Rs 12,587 crores and Rs 863 crores respectively. As on 31.3.2011, the total outstanding dues of BSNL and MTNL are Rs 5341 crores and Rs 1,103 crores respectively. Measures taken/being taken by BSNL and MTNL to recover their outstanding dues are as follows:

• Payment reminders through Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) and Short Message Service (SMS) are being issued to persuade the customers to make payment before disconnection of their telephones.

• Graded discount scheme regarding grant of discount to defaulting customers, for clearance of old outstanding dues was introduced.

• Incentive scheme to employees of BSNL for recovery of outstanding arrears from defaulters has also been put in place.

• The progress in regard to liquidation of outstanding dues is closely monitores and units are addressed periodically.

• BSNL circles have also been asked to utilize the services of State Government Departments in recovery of outstanding dues.

• Procedure for settlement of defaulter cases through Lok Adalat has been introduced for recovery of outstanding telephone dues in respect of permanently closed connections.

17-12-2011: BSNL seeks Rs 12,000 cr for VRS.......

2011-12-16T23:18:00.000-08:00

State-owned telecom service operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is seeking Rs 12,000 crore from the central government towards one-time compensation package to the employees opting for its voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), according to RK Upadhyay, chairman and managing director.
“The total cost of the VRS, designed to revive the loss-making company, works out to Rs 16,000 crore if 100,000 employees opt for it. I think approximately Rs 12,000 crore is required to be given by the government and the remaining Rs 4,000-odd crore will be borne by the company,” Upadhyay told mediapersons here on Friday.........source ( BS )

16-12-2011: GOVT gives NOD to BSNL'S VRS plan......DOT accepts to support financially in principle for VRS of BSNL employee....proposal after DOT will be floated in CABINET soon...news on ET NOW...

2011-12-16T02:26:00.000-08:00

15-12-2011: SNATTA extends moral support to the strike of 15-12-2011....

2011-12-15T05:16:00.000-08:00

13-12-2011: 30% court case update......

2011-12-12T20:20:00.000-08:00

it is relaibly confirmed that the cort case for 30 % fitment case is further delayed and the hearing date is further extended to 3rd january, 2012. details will be uploaded later....

09-12-2011:operator wise market share as on 31st OCT, 2011...............

2011-12-08T22:15:00.000-08:00

08-12-2011:DoT accepts BSNL's offer to surrender its broadband wireless airwaves......ET.

2011-12-07T19:35:00.000-08:00

06-12-2011:******* BSNL staff to get VRS option soon......... source...INDIA Today

2011-12-06T09:17:00.000-08:00

The department of telecommunications (DoT) would expedite the voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) of almost one lakh employees of state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) after it completes the process of repatriating 1,800 Indian Telecom Officers (ITOs) - with BSNL since its inception - back to their parent cadre DoT.

Unlisted BSNL was carved out of DoT in October 2000. Over 300 officials have already been relieved, while the remaining officers are expected to join DoT by December-end.

However, the twin moves has left the employees baffled. ITO officials being repatriated to DoT would lose heavily on account of perks, privileges and retirement benefits. In the case of VRS, employees completing 45 years and having served BSNL as regular employees for 15 years are being singled out.

Industry observers feel that the fate of the PSU is at stake. They feel that these developments will create a massive vacuum, which will not only affect the basic functioning of the state-run telecom company but will also affect other operators as well.

"Most of the operators are dependent on BSNL for their mobile network and infrastructure. All telcos are linked with each other through BSNL. If there is a problem at BSNL, other operators will also be affected," said an official of a Delhi-based private telecom company.

However, DoT said that when BSNL was formed it was agreed that those working for BSNL would eventually be absorbed. While the ITOs continued with BSNL on deputation, other cadres were merged. This has caused resentment among others in BSNL. The crisis the BSNL officials said is due to failed plans.

Those who opt for VRS will get an exgratia amount of 60-days' basic and dearness allowance for the number of months left in service for a maximum of 60 months. The ex-gratia amount will be in addition to the normal retirement benefits.

The government is likely to spend around Rs.11,276 crore on BSNL's VRS. In addition, there will be expenditure on normal retirement benefits, including gratuity, pension, leave encashment and transfer grant. While BSNL expects to save Rs.33,650 crore by March 31, 2027 by offering VRS to its one lakh employees.

Besides BSNL, Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) that operates in Delhi and Mumbai only has also sent proposals to the government to offer voluntary retirement to employees to save costs.

BSNL has been relegated to the fifth place in terms of mobile subscribers after Airtel, Vodafone, Reliance and Tatas from its number two position just a few years ago. Both BSNL and MTNL have failed to keep pace with private operators. They have been losing market share to rivals.

BSNL saw its overall revenue fall from Rs.39,715 crore in 2006-07 to Rs.38,053 crore in 2007-08 and further to Rs.35,812 crore in 2008-09, before falling to Rs.32,046 crore in 2009-10.

The telco has also told a government panel that its revenues for the fiscal ended March 2011 was expected to be Rs.31,738 crore. The company has projected Rs.623 crore loss for 2011-12.

06-12-2011: now bsnl has only 2500 crore in savings account.... how long it will support????.!!!!!!!!!!!!!! when the employees will wake up really to save BSNL..???????.!!!!!!!!!!!!

2011-12-05T20:46:00.000-08:00

06-12-2011:BSNL's cash and bank balance reach Rs 2,500 crore; likely to seek govt bailout..source ET

2011-12-05T20:44:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), that was sitting on cash pile of over Rs 40,000 crore till March 2008, and was using its interest income to buttress its profits, may soon be forced to seek a government bailout to survive. Once considered as jewel among the India's state-run companies, BSNL is facing an uphill task of meeting its fund requirement towards capital expenditure this fiscal as its cash and bank balance reached to a critical level of Rs 2,500 crore. Off this, BSNL has a bank deposit of only Rs 840 crore while the rest is current account and being used for running its businesses.

A year ago, BSNL had cash reserves to the tune of Rs 30,343.40 crore. This comes as the PSU has recorded loss of whopping Rs 6,384 crore for the year-ended March 2011, capping a series of dismal results in the last four years that saw the erstwhile monopoly being reduced to a bit player in the fastgrowing market. The unlisted company had earlier told the government that its losses would be limited to Rs 2,725-crore losses for the year-ended March 2011. BSNL had announced a loss of Rs 1,823 crore for the year to March 2010, a first for the company since it was set up. Its losses have gone up 350% over the last 12 months. "Our employee costs account fro 46.5% of the company's total revenues.

No company can survive if employee costs eats away a bulk of revenues," BSNL's chairman and managing director RK Upadhyay told ET. On revenues of Rs 29,687 crore, the company has incurred employee cost of Rs 13,791 crore during the last fiscal, as per its balance sheet, a copy of which was reviewed by ET. BSNL saw its overall revenue fall from Rs 39,715 crore in 2006-07 to Rs 38,053 crore in 2007-08 and further to Rs 35,812 crore in 2008-09, before falling to Rs 32,046 in 2009-10.

Its fall from grace is best explained from the fact that its annual revenues were over the Rs 40,000-crore mark for the yearended March 2006. According to Upadhyay, the telco's cash reserves collapsed as the company paid out close to Rs 19,000 crore for 3G and wireless broadband access (BWA) spectrum last year. BSNL did not take part in the auctions, but was mandated to match the winning bid in all circles.

This resulted in the telco paying up Rs 10,186.58 crore for 3G airwaves and a further Rs 8,314 crore for BWA airwaves. Despite having a 12-month head start of over private operators, BSNL has been unable to make a business case of both its 3G and BWA airwaves. In fact, it had recently offered to surrender its broadband wireless airwaves to the government after it its plans to rollout WiMAX-based using these airwaves

05-12-2011: addition of mobile connection in sept 2011.........source ( PTI)

2011-12-05T08:31:00.000-08:00

Meanwhile, growth in the wireless category was led by Idea Cellular which added 1.73 million users, taking its subscriber base to 100.18 million at the end of September.

Bharti Airtel added 0.93 million subscribers in the reported month, taking its user base to 172.78 million.
Reliance Communications added 1.02 million new users to take its total customer base to over 147.08 million.
Vodafone added 0.84 million new customers during the month, taking its user base to 144.99 million, while Aircel added over 0.60 million users during the period.

State-owned BSNL added 0.38 million new users, taking its total subscriber base to 95.79 million. The other state-run telecom company MTNL saw 28,360 new users registering for its service in the reported month.

03-12-2011:BSNL plans to lease infrastructure to private players: Govt.....PTI

2011-12-02T21:55:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-run telecom operator BSNL plans to lease out spare capacity of its about 60,000-strong network of towers to private players to unlock the value of infrastructure, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora today said.

"BSNL has about 60,000 towers across the country. BSNL management has decided to lease out spare capacity of its towers to other private players on commercial terms and conditions to generate incremental revenue," Deora said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha today.

BSNL has, so far, shared 1,072 towers with the private players, he added.

Loss-making BSNL would to able to ease some of its financial pangs by unlocking the value of its idle tower assets with tower sharing.

Since BSNL has the infrastructure rolled out in the remotest parts of the country, private telcos would also benefit from such partnerships, as they can save on cost of setting up infrastructure and instead leasing out the assets from BSNL instead.

In response to another query, Deora said about 1.69 lakh villages are covered through BSNL's wireline broadband services.

"There are 5,93,601 inhabited villages in the country (as per 2001 census, out of which 1,69,201 villages have been covered through BSNL wireline broadband services as on October 30, 2011," he added.

03-12-2011: New GM / Krishnagar visited the exchange building, Krishnagar on 02-12-2011

2011-12-02T21:53:00.000-08:00

this is the first time after our joining in BSNL , since last three years that our GM .i.e our SSA Head visited the exchange buildings etc. we apprecate this trend. we appeal to him so that regularly inspection sholud be done so that at least we believe that we have a SSA head.

01-12-2011: BSNL submits VRS proposal to Telecom Ministry...reply of MOS Honble MILIND Deora to LOKSABHA......News

2011-11-30T23:12:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL has submitted the details of the proposed voluntary retirement scheme (VRS) to the Telecom Ministry for employees who have completed the age of 45 years and have served on a regular basis for 15 years, Parliament was informed today.

The employees, who will avail the VRS, would get an ex-gratia amount of 60 days salary (basic + dearness allowance) for each completed year of service, or salary for the number of months left in the service, whichever is less.

However, the compensation would be subject to the maximum of 60 months salary, Minister of State for Communications and IT Milind Deora said in Lok Sabha.
......................ET
Further, he said the ex-gratia amount will be in addition to the normal retirement benefits.

The likely expenditure on ex-gratia for approximately 1 lakh employees is estimated to be about Rs 11,276 crore. In addition there will be expenditure on normal retirement benefits, including gratuity, pension, leave encashment and transfer grant.

BSNL had consultations with its executive association and staff union in this regard. BSNL has reported that the majority of associations have opposed the scheme or expressed their reservations, he added.

"The proposal is under examination in the Department of Telecom," Deora said.

BSNL had registered a net loss of Rs 1,823 crore during 2009-10. BSNL had reported the highest net profit of over Rs 10,000 crore in 2005-06, but since then its profits have been falling and in 2009-10 it reported net losses.

The VRS has been under discussion since 2009 when a panel headed by Sam Pitroda, adviser to the Prime Minister on Public Information Infrastructure and Innovations, advocated that BSNL take the VRS route to prune its nearly 2.77 lakh strong workforce by a third.

Besides, BSNL has Rs 5,475.73 crore as the outstanding dues from the customers at the end of three years and for the current year as on September 30, 2011 in respect of wired and wireless mobile services and circuits, Deora said.

30-11-2011: VRS for BSNL, MTNL staff not possible this fiscal: Telecom Secy.....the hindu...

2011-11-30T06:59:00.000-08:00

The Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for employees of Government-owned telecom firms, BSNL and MTNL will take some more time as the Telecom Ministry is yet to take a final call on the same.

“It (VRS) is not going to be possible in this fiscal,” the Telecom Secretary, Mr R. Chandrasekhar, said on the sidelines of the Skoch summit on employment here on Tuesday.

“BSNL has formulated a proposal. That is something on which a view has not been taken. There is obviously a major financial obligation involved, which needs to be seen before any view is taken,” he said.

Both BSNL and MTNL had submitted a proposal approved by their boards to seek financial support from the Government for implementation of VRS. MTNL had submitted a proposal seeking 100 per cent financial support from the Government, while BSNL had sought nearly Rs 18,000 crore from the Department of Telecom.

On December 15, BSNL employees are planning a one-day countrywide strike against the VRS and other issues.

Earlier, Mr Chandrashekhar said the country needed to focus on enhancing skills, creating more jobs and equal opportunities to ensure that the demographic dividend does not turn into a ‘demographic time bomb'.

He said while scale was often achieved in the fields of information, communication and technology, the country was falling short of quality employment.

“ICT is one of the largest job creators in the country. To enhance the dormant potential of the youth, their skills need to be enhanced. Since the Government is not equipped to deal with quality issues, the private sector will have to step in”, he said.

The Member Secretary, Planning Commission, Ms Sudha Pillai, said the big problem that the country was facing was lack of reliable employment data. “Data for employment should be as frequent as inflation data,” she said.

30-11-2011:41,000 complaints against telecom operators in April-September...ET

2011-11-30T06:56:00.000-08:00

NEW DELHI: More than 41,000 telecom subscribers filed complaints against various service providers with the Department of Telecom and sectoral regulator Trai over poor network and other service grievances in the first half of the 2011-12 fiscal, Parliament was informed today.

"From April 1 to September 30 this year, 1,418 service-related complaints, which include complaints relating to poor network/services against various telecom service providers, have been received in Trai," Telecom Minister Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

He added that 41,341 complaints against various telecom service providers -- including grievances related to poor network and services -- have been received in the public grievances cell of the DoT between April 1 and October 31, 2011.

Most of the complaints filed with the DoT were against state-run telecom companies MTNL and BSNL. Over 24,000 complaints were received against MTNL and 11,000 against BSNL.

Among private operators, Reliance Communications (RCom) topped the charts for the maximum number of complaints. A total of 1,859 complaints were filed against RCom with the DoT and 232 with the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

Airtel was next in the list of maximum complaints, with 1,392 grievances lodged against the company with the DoT and 391 with Trai.

In his written reply, the Telecom Minister also attached the latest Quality of Service report by Trai for the quarter ended June, 2011, which shows BSNL has not been able to meet quality benchmarks for most parameters as specified by Trai.

Among private telecom operators, Aircel had the poorest credibility with respect to pre-paid and post-paid billing of mobile phones in most telecom circles.

Deora said Aircel, in its clarification, has attributed the poor performance to system configuration, system errors, segmented promotional offers, complaints related to value-added services, etc.

In addition, he said Trai has found a severe problem of call drops on the networks of Tata Teleservices (TTSL), Idea Cellular, Unitech Wireless and Etisalat, among private operators.

"The benchmark of the parameter worst-affected cells having more than 3 per cent TCH (calls) drop were reported mainly from rural areas due to low call volumes and customers moving beyond the covered areas of the rural sites," TTSL said in its reply to government.

The company added that the issue is being addressed through optimisation methods. A similar clarification was provided by Etisalat DB.

Unitech Wireless attributed the call drop problem on its network to a

30-11-2011:update of 30% fitment Court case......

2011-11-30T05:48:00.000-08:00

*******.....next date of hearing 12-12-2011...... details will be uploaded later.....