He knows exactly why the company couldn’t become market leader in terms of customer base despite having one of the largest telecom set-ups in the country. He also knows what exactly needs to be done in order to make company grabbing pole position at least in Jharkhand Circle. Perhaps this is why BSNl CGM (Jharkhand) KK Thakur in a candid conversation with the pioneer objects people calling the company a follower or a copycat at the time of launching new products and services. Excerpts:
Despite being largest State owned telecom operator and oldest in many circles, why BSNl couldn’t become market leader in mobile telecom customer base so farIJ
Frankly speaking, there have been two important reasons, which we have started working to get rid of off late. Though I am not supposed to represent BSNl nationally in my present capacity, I can say that for this Circle, Government’s policies forced us to keep waiting for prerequisite licenses to operate. At least not before a couple of private players started working on. Second, work culture within the company on many fronts. I must say that around 5 per cent market share in mobile telephony in the Circle with such a huge set up is of course not worth celebrating. But we are working to take it on another level.
Why is it that the company has appeared to be following plans and products of other companies many a timesIJ
Those companies have their priorities and business proportions, we have ours. So, it is not a matter of following up or pressure created from their side which pushes us to launch products and services which appear similar to them. We have remained leader in many telecom services in the past and have been courageous enough to experiment with the plans, which despite being popular, couldn’t garner expected success within time. But I strongly believe that we know where we should focus on coming first, and where we should focus on the best. And, in the present market scenario, we believe in the best. Three of the plans launched even today are the best in their class in existing market.
Service quality of BSNl in mobile telephony in many parts of the Circle is not up to the marks. If honestly said, it is the only grievance of most of the customers. What are you doing to improve itIJ
We launched customer centric Service With a Smile (SWAS) last year, which worked wonders. Customer satisfaction level has flown to another level since the service was launched. Our service quality in mobile telephony is not weak, at least by now. Contrary to this, our network has improved from 60-65 per cent to 80-85 per cent during previous financial year (2016-17) after replacing old Ericsson network with new state-of-the-art ZTE network. It is because of our improved network quality, that we have witnessed 4,75,000 new customers joining our network during previous financial year. Our Mobile Number Portability (MNP) figures are impressive with 24,425 customers porting in against 15,659 customers porting out. And it all has happened due to our improved service quality and unbeatable product offers.
What is your way ahead for current financial yearIJ
We are going to launch 4.5 G services soon through wi-fi. At least 400 new BTSs will be added to strengthen network quality. We will continue to launch most competitive products. Quality of services is going to remain in the centre of our plans for current financial year.