Question : BSNL and MTNL Landline Telephones

(a) whether records of revenue earned and expenditure incurred by BSNL and MTNL out of landline connections are maintained separately along with the losses suffered as a result of surrendered telephone connections;

(b) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reaction of the Government in this regard;

(c) whether a large number of complaints regarding the telephones being out of order are received and the complaints remain unattended for days and a certain period these are recorded as disposed of without attending;

(d) if so, the action proposed to be taken by the Government against officials responsible for the same and the steps taken to improve the situation;

(e) whether Government proposed to modernise all its telephone exchanges for improving the landline services with migrating old technology systems in exchanges with C-DOT; and

(f) if so, the details thereof and the action taken in this regard alongwith the remedial steps taken to improve marketing and customer satisfaction parameters?

THE MINISTER OF COMMUNICATIONS AND INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI RAVI SHANKAR PRASAD)

(a)&(b) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) maintain separate records of revenue earned and expenditure incurred on basic telephone services. However, they do not maintain record of losses on account of surrendered telephone connections. Details of revenue earned and expenditure incurred on wireline network by BSNL for the financial year 2013-14 and by the MTNL for the financial year 2014-15 are given below:

Particulars BSNL
(In Rs. crores) MTNL
(In Rs. Crores)
Revenue from operations 13,231 2,667
Other Income 1,506 320
Total Income 14,737 2,987
Total Expenses 25,574 3,948
Profit/Loss before tax -10, 837 -961

BSNL and MTNL are separately preparing revival plan for increasing revenue potential, identifying business opportunities, organizational restructuring and training to enable human resource to grow into customer-centric companies with expertise in marketing and customer services delivery.

(c)&(d) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) monitors the performance of service providers against the Quality of Service (QoS) benchmark parameters through the standards of QoS for Basic Wireline Service and Cellular Mobile Telephone Service Regulations, 2009.

TRAI has reported that in Performance Monitoring Report (PMR) for the quarter ending March, 2015 for Basic Wireline Service, BSNL is meeting the benchmark for the parameters of fault incidences, % fault repaired by next working day for urban areas and % fault repaired within 5 days (for urban areas). However, MTNL is not meeting the benchmark for the parameter fault incidences and % fault repaired within 5 days (for urban areas).

For non-compliance with the benchmark service providers are liable for imposition of financial disincentives to force them to improve performance on QoS.

BSNL and MTNL are taking various steps to improve their network. The details of these steps are as follows:

• Monitoring of the Fault Repair Service System.
• Deployment of modern and state of art CDR (Call Detail Record) based Billing & Customer care system.
• Establishment of Customer Service Centres at all important locations in the country with “single window concept” to facilitate friendly interactions with the customers.
• Replacement of weak batteries and power plants to improve network uptime
• Regular Radio Frequency (RF) optimization tests.

BSNL and MTNL have informed that whenever any complaint is received regarding ‘wrong disposal of complaints’, suitable action is taken as per rules.

(e)&(f) BSNL has informed that it has planned for replacement/migration of Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) to Next Generation Network (NGN). With migration to NGN, customers will get better communication facilities on wireline by providing enhanced Value Added Services (VAS) like Personalized Ring Back Tone, Multi Media Video Conferencing etc. This way the churn rate of wireline customers is expected to reduce and Average Revenue Per User (ARPU) is expected to rise by increased utility of wireline.
Introduction of NGN will also enable the wireline network for Fixed-Mobile Convergence.
Efforts have been made by BSNL to facilitate provisioning of converged customer care billing platform(CDR system), provisioning of new services at affordable prices, introduction of various attractive tariff plans, improved marketing strategies, monitoring of Quality of Service parameters as defined by TRAI and up-gradation of the external plants etc. so as to provide improved communication system to customers. State-of–the-art Calling Line Identification Phone (CLIP) instruments are being procured and provided to BSNL customers for enhanced customer satisfaction.
BSNL has also introduced free calling scheme on any network during night hours (9pm to 7am) to improve the utilization of network and bringing back the interest of customers in landline services.
• MTNL has reported that it all of its exchanges are fully automated and the switching capacity is 100 % digital. MTNL has introduced free calling scheme for its Delhi and Mumbai landline customers between 2200 hrs to 0700 hrs. MTNL is also providing a host of telecom services to increase its market share, which include:
• Phone plus services such as computerized morning alarm, voice mail, automatic changed number announcement, computerized fault booking/ payment system etc.
• Intelligent Network (IN) based services which include premium rate service and pre-paid service, etc.
• New Broadband Nodes planned for commissioning in Delhi and Mumbai to improve the broadband services.

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