BSNL Needs To Focus On Customer Service To Dispel Negative Customer Perception : Manoj Sinha

Telecom minister Manoj Sinha has urged BSNL to focus more on customer services so as to change the negative perception towards the state run telco. The Minister was speaking at the Heads of Circles Conference (HOCC) of senior officers of BSNL being organized at its Corporate office in New Delhi.

“The field officers of BSNL should focus on better customer service and try to change the negative customer perception about it,” said Sinha.

He also said there are lot of new opportunities coming up where the operator can showcase its expertise and take advantage of the situations.

“BSNL has many bigger opportunities in near future other than mobile telephony,” Sinha said. “Many tenders have been finalized for 2G, 3G and 4G services. Market share of BSNL has been improved from 7.6% to 9.43% which is commendable”.

However, he added that the state run firm can play significant role in Smart City projects, NFS and FTTH.

“Works worth Rs 150 Crore has been allotted to BSNL under smart city projects, which can be taken as an advantage”, the Minister added.

Telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan was also present there at the function. She said the operator sets to have an edge over other competitors in the coming times. However, she said “the operator needs to be aggressive and innovative.”

“BSNL is a key partner in BharatNet implementation and has increased market share as well. Smart thinking and smart implementation at this stage will be an edge for it,” she said.

The secretary said the government has deliberately re-named the National Telecom Policy as National Digital Communication Policy (NDCP) 2018 which aims to provide Broadband for All.

“The objective is that every citizen of India must have broadband of 10mbps speed by 2022. We are also organizing workshops with States to aggressively drive that and make sure that by 2022, broadband becomes available to all,” Sundararajan said. “BSNL has a clear lead and advantage.”

The government has set a target of installing five million wifi hotspots by 2020 and 10 million hotspots by 2022. The draft NDCP 2018 also mentions that 50% of household in India will have FTTH by in next four years.

BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava said despite tough competition in the market the telco has so far been successful standing guard against it.

“Even in this turbulent times BSNL could not only face the competition head on by matching tariff by tariff and even at times proactively coming up with bold, innovative, unlimited data and voice plans. This has helped us to increase its market share as well as remain MNP positive,” said Shrivastava. – Tele Analysis