Question : POOR SERVICE OF MTNL AND BSNL

(a) the State-wise market share of BSNL and MTNL in comparison to their private counterparts along with the number of subscribers of these PSUs who have switched over to the private players during the last three years and the current year, State and operator-wise;

(b) whether the unsatisfactory and weak mobile network of the PSU telecom companies in many telecom districts have been a major factor in decline of the market shares of these PSUs;

(c) if so, the details thereof and the number of complaints received by MTNL and BSNL during the last three years and current year, PSU-wise and the action taken on such complaints, State-wise;

(d) the number of public grievance cell set up by both the PSUs for redressal of consumer grievances, State-wise; and

(e) the steps taken/being taken by the government to improve signal quality and to address the other grievances of the consumers?

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

(a) The Service area-wise market share of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) in comparison to their private counterparts for mobile phone services during last three years and current year is given in Annexure-1. Circle-wise number of subscribers of BSNL and MTNL who have switched over to the private players during the last three years and the current year is given in Annexure-2.

(b) & (c) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) monitors the performance of service providers against the Quality of Service (QoS) benchmark parameters through quarterly performance monitoring reports received from service providers. As per the performance monitoring report for the quarter ending September, 2014, BSNL is generally meeting the benchmarks for the network related parameters for its mobile services except in the state of Assam, Bihar, Kolkata, North East and West Bengal service areas in parameters such as worst affected BTSs (Base Transceiver Stations) downtime, worst affected cells having more than 3% TCH (Traffic Channel) drop, Percentage of calls answered by the operators. In case of MTNL, TRAI has reported that MTNL is meeting the benchmarks for all the network related parameters for mobile services in Delhi and Mumbai service areas.

Circle-wise number of complaints received by MTNL and BSNL during the last three years and current year, is given in Annexure-3.

(d) BSNL and MTNL have reported that they have agrievance redressal mechanism in place as prescribed by TRAI. Complaints are attended to by BSNL and MTNL within the prescribed time limit as laid down by TRAI. Details of Centres for receiving the consumer grievances /complaints of BSNL and MTNL are given in Annexure-4:

(e) BSNL and MTNL are in financial distress and facing declining revenues from loss of market share and increasing expenditure.MTNL has been unable to invest in expansion/ modernisation of its network due to financial distress. BSNL has been unable to invest in expansion of its network over the period 2009-2013. Other reasons like power supply problem, disruptions due to cable cuts arising from road development works, breakdown of cables due to old legacy network of basic service, cable theft etc. are also affecting the services of BSNL and MTNL. The reasons for decline in mobile connections are mainly due to inadequate investment leading to network coverage issues, inability to compete with private sector on the customer services and marketing.

BSNL and MTNL are taking several steps to enhance revenues through investments to strengthen its network and focus on customer care and service delivery to improve quality of service.

The investment projects being undertaken by BSNL include:

# Augmentation of its mobile network as part of its Phase-VII Project to create additional capacity of 15 million lines at an estimated cost of Rs. 4804.77 crores. This will result in addition of 14421 2G sites and 10605 3G sites across the country.

# Replacement of the entire network of wireline local exchanges by Internet Protocol (IP) enabled exchanges and deployment of Next Generation Network (NGN) equipment based on the latest architecture gradually to replace entire legacy telephone exchanges at an estimated cost of Rs. 600 crores.

# Migration of entire C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics) legacy telephone exchanges with technology solutions being developed by C-DOT at an estimated cost of Rs. 350 crores for which MoU (Memorandum of Understanding) has been signed between C-DOT and BSNL.

# Government has assigned the work of providing mobile connectivity in 2199 identified locations in Left Wing Extremism (LWE) affected areas through BSNL at an estimated cost of Rs. 3567.58 crores.

# Government has assigned the work of providing mobile connectivity to uncovered villages in Arunachal Pradesh and two districts of Assam to BSNL on nomination basis at an estimated cost of Rs. 1975.38 crores.

The new projects of MTNL are:

# Augmentation of mobile network to enhance coverage and capacity by adding 1080 3G sites and 800 2G sites in Delhi and 1080 3G sites and 566 2G sites in Mumbai.

The packet core capacity (Data handling capacity of network) will be upgraded to 10 Gbps in Delhi and Mumbai.

# Augmentation of Microwave (M/W) backhaul network to support the enhanced speed.

# Migration of legacy telephone exchanges network to internet protocol (IP) based New Generation Network (NGN) exchanges in collaboration with C-DOT.

In addition, BSNL and MTNL are taking various steps to improve their mobile 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 Centers 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.