The government today ruled out appointing an ombudsman to redress the complaints of poor mobile telephony services, like call drops, saying state-run BSNL and MTNL were taking effective steps to upgrade technology.



Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour in Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Telecom Sachin Pilot said, while the telecom revolution had led India to having one of the world’s cheapest call rates, it had also led to congestion in network, causing call drops.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd (MTNL) are taking effective steps like upgrading technology and putting in more efforts to improve quality.

“The direct answer to his question is no,” he said when asked whether the government would set up an independent ombudsman to address complaints like call drops.

Telcom Minister A Raja said the per-second metering of call, recently introduced by major mobile operators, was to ensure consumers were not made to pay for full one minute when the call might not have lasted more than a few seconds because of call drop.

He said he was “not bothered” about companies losing revenue in the per-second billing so long as consumers were benefited.

The government was providing a level playing field to public and private telecom operators, he added.

Pilot said teledensity or number of telephones per 100 persons, had increased from 9 per cent in 2005 to 44 per cent now. In metro cities like Delhi and Mumbai, it is more than 100 per cent, but is just 16-18 per cent in rural areas.

BSNL will set up 10,000 towers by March 2010 and 15,000 towers by March 2011 to improve mobile telephony.

The Universal Service Obligation (USO) Fund — a corpus created from 5 per cent revenue that companies earned from providing mobile telephony in cities — will be used to increase rural teledensity and provide wireless broadband connections in villages.

On the issue of profitability of BSNL as compared to private companies, he said the state-run firm was saddled with 300,000 employees and one-third of its revenue went towards meeting staff cost. In comparison, the largest private telecom company might have 20,000 employees, consuming 5-8 per cent of the total revenue.

BSNL, he said, had a market share of 77 per cent in landline telephones, 60 per cent in broadband connections and 13.3 per cent in mobile telephones. The decline in the market share had been arrested during the past 12 months and the company was increasing marketing activity.

Intel Wants JV With ITI

Intel is planning to participate in bids invited by Indian state-owned telecom equipment maker ITI Ltd to set up joint ventures. The loss-making ITI intends to be a minority partner in the proposed joint ventures with a 26 percent stake according to the bid proposals. Other global players that have showed interest include Huawei, Alcatel-Lucent, Samsung and Hitachi. (Read more at Reuters)

Accentium Web Launches Taaza.com

taaza_logo Accentium Web, which runs SecondShaadi.com, Gaadi.com and StudyTimes.com, has launched Taaza.com, which aggregates content across different verticals such as news, videos, loans, insurance, photos and videos from multiple sources. According to the company, users can also submit news and other content and other users can vote and comment on them. (Read more at Alootechie)

(By Preethi) Our Take: There’s nothing very “taaza” about the portal, it is just a me-too initiative. Accentium’s attempt to put up such properties in a market already flooded with options reveals the lack of farsightedness by top management.

Disclosure: Accentium has been founded by MediaNama editor Nikhil Pahwa’s cousin Vivek Pahwa.

DoT Asks BSNL To Hurry 93M Line Tender

The Indian Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has suggested a quick re-tendering of the 93-million GSM line order, from BSNL. The equipment order has already been delayed for nearly a year. Currently, BSNL is already involved in price negotiations with Ericsson for the two zones and for the southern zone with Huawei. It has also given advance purchase orders to both. The problem arose after the government decided not to allow Chinese companies to supply equipment in telecom circles. Huawei was not given the contract and the bid of Nokia Siemens Networks was rejected on some grounds, as a result of which the company went to court. (Read more at Business Standard )

Microsoft’s Online Services

Microsoft has launched ‘Online Services’ in India, which will allow small and medium businesses (SMBs) and enterprise customers to access e-mail and conferencing solutions through Internet, for $2 per user a month.The company has also partnered with HCL Infosystems, Infosys and Wipro to market and offer value-added services around the Microsoft Online Services. The entire suite would be offered at about $10 per user a month, while on a stand alone basis, one would need to pay between $2-5 depending on the product. Medianama had reported on the trial launch of the online services in July. (Read more at Business Standard)

Roshan Tamang Quits Web18

Roshan Tamang, VP and editor, Web18, is set to leave Web 18. He is currently serving his notice period. Tamang had joined Network18 in 2005. He has also worked as vice president and editor, web operations at CNN-IBN. Tamang is now expected to join The Times of India Group. (Read more at Alootechie)