The BJP government led by PM Narendra Modi and telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad is reportedly planning to offer the Rs 20,000 crore plus National Optical Fiber Network project to the ailing telecom PSU BSNL.
The Congress party was keen to deliver the ambitious broadband project before the Lok Sabha elections that gave 42 seats to Rahul Gandhi and team.
BSNL, which is facing a slow death, because of competition from telecom operators such as Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Communications, Tata Docomo, Aircel, etc. should not get the mandate due to its lack of efficiency in executing larger projects before schedule.
Lack of accountability of BSNL officers and bureaucrats is the primary reason for the decline in the growth of BSNL subscriber base. The earlier governments could not even hire an experienced person from the public or private sector to run BSNL.
DoT officials, who are facing pressure from the new government, will be careful this time because Modi and team are trying to fix accountability before giving the mandate to execute the broadband project that can become the lifeline of India.
Ideally, the new telecom minister should ask the top team of National Optical Fiber Network project to step down. Industry experts say most of the team members do not have enough experience in running large projects. Due to lack of their expertise, National Optical Fiber Network did not receive quality bids from telecom network vendors in several occasions.
Ideally, this project should be given to a consortium of private companies for rolling out the project. BSNL, PowerGrid and RailTel, which jointly hold 60 percent stake, in Bharat Broadband Network, should not be a part of the consortium and roll outs. The government should take over the project from Bharat Broadband Network to ensure that the network is rolled out without further delays. New telecom minister and his team can ensure that the private consortium does not delay in execution and quality of network is not compromised.
Though the BJP government cannot achieve the new deadline i.e. September 2015, the execution is vital for the country to develop a broadband highway.
Baburajan K
Ideally, the project should be split into two parts: The project planning & execution mode; and the operations mode.
The basic target and goals are half-baked. There has been no thought given to what services one should deliver through NOFN, and how to reach the last inch. The only plan has been to plan a high capacity empty pipe that stops a few KM from the rural household or enterprise. The objecives need to be reframed to include thes. Also it is a very foolish idea that you can reach every village using fiber. One needs fiber upto a point, and then coax or wireless or even ethernet to deliver the services. Also, one needs to co-opt service providers- E-Commerce, E-Gov people, CSC people, ISPs and Cable companies to provide the content and deliver it.
The project mode has to be awarded to a good consortium that can not only build this, but part-finance it, with rights of usage . The operations have to be manage dby a top-notch team that has delivered in Telecom. Today, there are many veterans in private sector who have hung up their boots, but will come in and do a great job.
The idea has to be rounded out, made useful and viable. At the moment it is a project of the babus , by hte babus for the babus.
Also, why always give away huge projects to people who do not have a great track record ? And why this Public Sector-only syndrome ? BSNL, MTNL or ITI could not keep their own houses in order , or grow their services or even use what was gifted to them like 3G and BWA (later when they had to pay for it, they returned the gifts). ITI has been given an unique chance to monopolize 10% of all public sector orders- which has simply been not used to any advantage.
Time somebody up there in Govt. woke up and smelled the roses.
Who are u to give such suggestions so openly against BSNL. Are U are
knowing it that the poor condition of BSNL is due to its non functional
staff only and not the conspiracy of politicians and corporates? The
formation of BSNL was not a conspiracy.How come a company whose services
were best in 2003 – 2004 has become the worst after 2014. Was it best
due to its staff inherited from DOT and now is it worst because most of
them have retired and new hard working young officers from reputed
colleges have joined. Criticizing a PSU so openly is just like branding
its competitor privates which also implies some or other way vested
interests in this type of news.All the heads of these PSUs ( BSNL, Power
Grid and Railtel) are less experienced than the private telecom
companies thats why they are appointed heads of these PSUs haha. For
your information Power Grid is running very efficiently and is one of
the best PSU of India.
Just wait for the day BSNL falls u will realize where u are leading the readers to by such editorials. The situation can be imagined by seeing your child’s tuition fees slip. In education sector private schools have completely wiped out the govt.
schools ( I am not saying schools are closed) from the cities. The same
situation is going to be created in telecom sector.
Good luck for your readers.
Who are u to give such suggestions so openly against BSNL. Are U are
knowing it that the poor condition of BSNL is due to its non functional
staff only and not the conspiracy of politicians and corporates? The
formation of BSNL was not a conspiracy.How come a company whose services
were best in 2003 – 2004 has become the worst after 2010. Was it best
due to its staff inherited from DOT and now is it worst because most of
them have retired and new hard working young officers from reputed
colleges have joined. Criticizing a PSU so openly is just like branding
its competitor privates which also implies some or other way vested
interests in this type of news.All the heads of these PSUs ( BSNL, Power
Grid and Railtel) are less experienced than the private telecom
companies thats why they are appointed heads of these PSUs haha. For
your information Power Grid is running very efficiently and is one of
the best PSU of India.
Just wait for the day BSNL falls u will
realize where u are leading the readers to by such editorials. The
situation can be imagined by seeing your child’s tuition fees slip. In
education sector private schools have completely wiped out the govt.
schools ( I am not saying schools are closed) from the cities. The same
situation is going to be created in telecom sector.
Good luck to your readers.
What’s wrong in the editorial statement, they have stated the the bitter truth.