Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd.: Ruling the Indian Telecommunication Market

According to industry observers, while the intensifying competition and changing regulatory framework were factors beyond the company's control, there were many other problems that BSNL could have controlled - but did not. Foremost among these were faults in the network and complaints of poor service quality. Reportedly, the number of faults per 100 main lines per year in BSNL's landline network was more than 150 as compared to the world average of 25. This was greater even than the average number of faults (140) reported in low-income countries. In addition, BSNL's customer service initiatives left a lot to be desired. Till 1994, customers had no other option but to use BSNL's services and live with these problems. The entry of private companies such as Tata, Essar and Bharti during the early 2000s changed things drastically...

This delayed the launch by a few months. Though the costs were reduced only marginally, the delay gave enough time to other players in the business to establish themselves even more strongly. BSNL lost many prospective customers on account of this delay in its entry. In October 2002, BSNL launched CellOne and Excel (post-paid and pre-paid services respectively). In terms of reach, this was India's biggest cellular service till then. The service was to be launched across the country in two phases; in the first phase to be completed by December 2002, the company planned to cover major cities and towns in all states. By December 2003, the second phase planned to cover the remaining areas. BSNL roped in around 350,000 customers within the first two months of the launch...