Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has registered 10% revenue growth in 2022-23 financial year when compared to the previous fiscal. The per employee cost came down to 35% as a result of the implementation of VRS during the last three years, according to Chief General Manager of A.P. Circle, M. Sheshachalam.
Mr. Sheshachalam, who took over as the CGM recently, was in Visakhapatnam in view of the visit of the Parliamentary Standing Committee on IT to the city.
Addressing the media on October 5 (Thursday), Mr. Sheshachalam said that the BSNL, A.P. Circle generated revenue of ₹700 crore, which was 10% more than the previous financial year. Several measures have been taken to improve productivity and bring down costs and the target has been set to achieve a revenue of more than ₹1,000 crore in this fiscal year.
The A.P. Circle has 1.5 lakh landline connections, 50 lakh mobile phone connections, 25,000 ADSL broadband and 1.9 lakh FTTH (Fibre to the Home) connections, besides 13,000 leased circuits. Similarly, the Visakhapatnam Business Area (BA) has 18,593 landlines, 6 lakh mobile customers, 2,756 ADSL broadband, 26,827 FTTH BB and 1,556 leased circuits.
The CGM said that the revival package given by the Central government was preparing the BSNL to face stiff market competition. The government has given the mandate to the BSNL for setting up of Swadesi 4G network under the Atma Nirbhar Bharat scheme. The supplies are expected this month and the project is expected to be completed in a year. The soft launch was done in Punjab a few months ago, said Mr. Sheshachalam.
Mr. Sheshachalam explained that the 4G equipment, being produced indigenously, provides data security, and could be upgraded to 5G through software upgrade. The 4G equipment would be commissioned at 4,300 sites in the BSNL A.P. Circle, of which Visakhapatnam BA would have 463 sites.
Antyodaya vision
As part of the Centre’s Antyodaya vision of offering digital inclusivity and connecting the remote villages under the 4G Saturation project, 3,800 villages in the A.P. Telecom Circle, and 2,500 villages in Visakhapatnam BA, would be covered. The project is expected to be completed by December 2023, he said.
Bharat Net has merged with BSNL to connect the panchayats to provide Bharat Net Udyami scheme to rural customers. A total of 3,184 connections were given in the A.P. Circle and 2,163 were given in Visakhapatnam BA. He said that the data consumption has grown to 170 GB per customer, which was almost on par with the urban usage.
BSNL Principal General Manager, Telecom District, P. Paul Williams was present.
