business-northeast-logo

BBNL may be merged with BSNL: Govt

BNE ADMIN


Spread the love

New Delhi: The government is planning to merge Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with the loss-making state-run telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) this month, a senior official has said.

BSNL chairman and managing director PK Purwar at a recent event organized by the All India Graduate Engineers and Telecom officers Association (AIGETOA) said that the government is giving the telecom firm an opportunity for a turnaround.

"The government has taken a policy decision that BBNL is going to be merged into BSNL This means all work of BBNL at the pan-India level is going to come to BSNL," Purwar said at the All India Conference of DAIGETOA on March 13.

Referring to his meeting with the union telecom minister Purr said he had an hour-long meeting to this effect. BSNL already has a network of over 6.8 lakh kilometer of optical fibre cable (OFC) network. With the proposed merger, BSNL will get 5.67 kilometer of optical fibre, which has been laid across 1.85 lakh village panchayats in the country using the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF).

Special purpose vehicle (SPV) BBNL was formed in February 2012, to lay out optical fibre network across 2.5 lakh village panchayats across the country using USOF and provide its access to all telecom operators on a non-discriminatory basis.

Telecom operators are required to pay an 8 percent licence fee on their revenue from the sale of telecom services which includes a 5 percent levy for USOF. The state governments do not levy the right of way (RoW) charge on laying of OFC by the BBNL, which helps it in saving a significant amount compared to the fees that telecom operators are required to pay.

However, a few BBNL officials said that employees in the department are not in favour of the proposed merger due to the non-performance of BSNL on Bharatnet project in the past and pending dues of vendors despite payment already made to the state-run telecom firm by the SPV.

The officials shared a common view that private telecom operators also contribute to USOF and transferring BBNL assets under one player will be against idea and objective of creating the SPV which was to provide access to rural broadband networks on a non-discriminatory basis to all players.

PTI

BNE ADMIN