Lok Sabha Question No. 2817 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-07-10
Subject: Revival Plans for BSNL
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Pritam Gopinath Munde, S. Venkatesan, Shrikant Eknath Shinde, Girish Bhalchandra Bapat

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 2817 TO BE ANSWERED ON 10 TH   JULY, 2019

## REVIVAL PLANS FOR BSNL

## 2817.   DR. PRITAM GOPINATHRAO MUNDE: SHRI S. VENKATESAN: DR. SHRIKANT EKNATH SHINDE: SHRI GIRISH BHALCHANDRA BAPAT:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  the  landline,  mobile  and  internet  services  provided  by  the  Bharat  Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) are deteriorating day  by  day  resulting  in  shifting  of  consumers  to  other  service  providers,  if  so,  the  facts thereof;
- (b) whether both the companies  are running in heavy loss despite having  huge infrastructure and if so, the steps taken to provide revival package to BSNL;
- (c) whether BSNL is unable to make/ has not made payments for their electricity bills for energy  utilised  for  their  towers  resulting  in  disruption  and  collapse  of  telecom  services  in various part of the country, particularly in Maharashtra;
- (d) if so, the details thereof including the number of non-functional telephone exchanges and mobile towers, if any, due to non-payment of the said electricity bills, State/UT-wise; and
- (e) whether the Government has received any representations/letters from the Members of Parliament with regard to the revival of BSNL during the last three years and if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government thereon?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS, LAW & JUSTICE AND ELECTRONICS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a) No Sir, Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) monitors the performance of telecom service providers including Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone  Nigam  Limited  (MTNL)  against  the  benchmark  for  various  Quality  of  Service (QoS) parameters laid down by TRAI by way of QoS regulations issued from time to time, through Quarterly Performance Monitoring Reports (PMRs).

As  per  latest  PMR  issued  by  TRAI  for  the  quarter  ending  March  2019,  BSNL  is meeting  all  the  benchmarks  for  Basic  (Wireline)  and  Broadband  Services.    For  Cellular Mobile Telephone Service, BSNL is meeting the benchmark for all the parameters in all of its Licensed  Service  Areas  (LSAs)  except  for  the  parameter  'Network  QoS  DCR  Spatial distribution  measure  or  DCR  Network\_QSD  (90,90)  (benchmark  2%)'  and  'Network  QoS

DCR temporal  distribution  measure  or  DCR  Network\_QTD (97,90)  (benchmark  <  3%)'  in West Bengal Service area only.

MTNL  is  meeting  all  QoS  parameters  of  Basic  (Wireline),  Cellular  Mobile  and Broadband Services in both of its LSAs i.e. Delhi and Mumbai except for the parameter '% of faults repaired within 5 days' (benchmark 100%) in wireline Service in Delhi LSA only.

Total market share (wireline and mobile) of BSNL and MTNL during last three years are as under:

| Market Share (in %age) as on   | Market Share (in %age) as on   | Market Share (in %age) as on   | Market Share (in %age) as on   |
|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| PSU                            | 31.03.2017                     | 31.03.2018                     | 31.03.2019                     |
| BSNL                           | 9.63                           | 10.26                          | 10.72                          |
| MTNL*                          | 7.37                           | 7.16                           | 6.95                           |

* Market share of MTNL in its Licensed Service Areas only.

Detail of port-in and port-out mobile consumers of BSNL and MTNL is as under:

| Year    | BSNL      | BSNL      | MTNL    | MTNL     |
|---------|-----------|-----------|---------|----------|
|         | Port in   | Port out  | Port in | Port out |
| 2016-17 | 27,77,935 | 20,61,542 | 17,886  | 97,249   |
| 2017-18 | 41,32,600 | 34,96,128 | 8,702   | 1,81,160 |
| 2018-19 | 53,64,649 | 28,27,440 | 10,195  | 1,35,104 |

(b) BSNL and MTNL have been incurring losses continuously since financial year 200910.   Indian  Institute of Management, Ahmedabad and a private consultant were engaged to facilitate the preparation of revival/restructuring plan of BSNL and MTNL.  Pursuant to their recommendations and approval by their respective Boards, a comprehensive revival plan for BSNL and MTNL is under preparation.

(c) & (d) State/circle  wise  details  of  non-functional  telephone  exchanges  and  mobile towers of BSNL due to non-payment of electricity bills is at Annexure.

(e) Department  of  Telecommunications  has  received  several  representations/  letters regarding  revival  of  BSNL  from  Members  of  Parliament  (MPs).    Action  has  already  been initiated  by  the  DoT  and  a  comprehensive  revival  plan  for  BSNL  and  MTNL  is  under preparation.

## Annexure referred  to  in  Part  (c)  and  (d)  of  the  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.2817  for Answer on 10.07.2019

|   S.No | State/Union Territory    |   Non- Functional telephone Exchange due to non payment of Electricity bills |   Non- Functional mobile towers due to non payment of Electricity bills |
|--------|--------------------------|------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------|
|      1 | Andhra Pradesh           |                                                                            0 |                                                                      11 |
|      2 | Arunachal Pradesh        |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|      3 | Assam                    |                                                                            0 |                                                                      11 |
|      4 | Bihar                    |                                                                            0 |                                                                      14 |
|      5 | Chhattisgarh             |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|      6 | Goa                      |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|      7 | Gujarat                  |                                                                            3 |                                                                      17 |
|      8 | Haryana                  |                                                                           13 |                                                                       3 |
|      9 | Himachal Pradesh         |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     10 | Jammu &Kashmir           |                                                                            0 |                                                                      19 |
|     11 | Jharkhand                |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     12 | Karnataka                |                                                                          156 |                                                                     120 |
|     13 | Kerala                   |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     14 | Madhya Pradesh           |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     15 | Maharashtra              |                                                                          178 |                                                                     208 |
|     16 | Manipur                  |                                                                            1 |                                                                      36 |
|     17 | Meghalaya                |                                                                            1 |                                                                       6 |
|     18 | Mizoram                  |                                                                            1 |                                                                       0 |
|     19 | Nagaland                 |                                                                            5 |                                                                       5 |
|     20 | Odisha                   |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     21 | Punjab                   |                                                                            0 |                                                                       2 |
|     22 | Rajasthan                |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     23 | Sikkim                   |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     24 | Tamil Nadu               |                                                                            1 |                                                                     111 |
|     25 | Telangana                |                                                                           13 |                                                                      76 |
|     26 | Tripura                  |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     27 | Uttar Pradesh            |                                                                          132 |                                                                     391 |
|     28 | Uttarakhand              |                                                                            0 |                                                                       3 |
|     29 | West Bengal              |                                                                           20 |                                                                      50 |
|     30 | Andaman &Nicobar Islands |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     31 | Chandigarh               |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     32 | Dadar Nagar Haweli       |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     33 | Daman and Diu            |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     34 | Delhi                    |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     35 | Lakshadweep              |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |
|     36 | Pondycherry              |                                                                            0 |                                                                       0 |

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