Status quo

Yes, I have been not blogging for sometime now. Took a two week break from work. That's been refreshing. Am back in Delhi. It's still hot, but bearable.

As far as the telecom industry is concerned, nothing radical seems to have happened. The big dispute on the BSNL tender is yet to be resolved. So, 16 months after the BSNL tender for 63.5 million mobile lines was announced, not a single line has been commissioned. Minister A Raja wants Ericsson to lower the rate to $ 90 per line (it quoted $ 107 per line), which it is loathe to do. Huawei has reportedly offered to do it at $ 87 per line. He wants to know if Motorola can do it cheaper. Add to that the planned strike by BSNL employees.
Thanks to the delay, BSNL is simply going down the drain. Even if "The Raja" manages to get Ericsson to lower prices by $ 17, BSNL will gain a shade over $ 1 billion. But, nobody seems to be looking at the opportunity cost. Today BSNL is simply losing out to other operators who are adding on many more subscribers than it. During April-May '07 BSNL added just 574,000 new subscribers as opposed to Bharti Airtel's 3.6 million. Even Aircel that is present only in 9 out of the 23 circles had picked up 8.9 lakh subscribers.

Till early 2006, BSNL used to account for 20-25% of the net subscriber additions. In May, it accounted for just 4.7%.

If nothing is done quickly, BSNL will slip further. Simply put, it's high time Raja put his house in order and clear issues that have been pending. That will provide him a lot more sheen than trying to re-visit every decision taken by his predecessor.