Sibal asks BSNL to find alternative revenue sources

Union Minister of Communication and Information Technology Kapil Sibal on Monday asked public sector telecom service provider Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to come up with new models under the PPP mode to allow the private sector to use its vast underutilised resources in terms of towers and optical fibres to increase the bottomline of the public sector unit. BSNL's books show a net loss of Rs. 6,000 crore at present while it is valued at Rs.86000 crore in terms of net worth.

 

Speaking during the inaguration of BSNL Internet Data Centres (IDC), Sibal also said that India is already a telecom power and it's time when it should be transformed to an information technology power. And initiatives like the IDC can play a key role in the same. “These IDCs will enhance BSNL's comprehensive service portfolio to meet the communications and IT needs of large, medium as well as small business enterprises in India. It will facilitate various organisations to quickly induct IT enabled services within their organisations without the hassles of setting up and maintaining their own data centers,” Sibal said.

 

BSNL IDC is a public-private initiative to leverage the strength of BSNL in telecom infrastructure and that of Dimesion Data, a $5.8 billion global IT services company, in providing data center and cloud computing. BSNL will offer Colocation, Managed Hosting and Cloud Services through these IDCs built, operated and managed by Dimension Data for BSNL.

 

Also present on the occasion, Sachin Pilot, Minister of State for Communication and Information Technology, said that free access to information is the key to India's growth. Complimenting BSNL on the cloud computing initiative, he said, “Technology sets certain demands and expectations on the Government when government aims to deliver more interactive services through E-Governance when interacting with the citizens, institutions and business enterprises. For this cloud computing may lead to significant cost savings.”

 

BSNL expects a revenue of Rs.500 crore per annum once the 10 IDCs it is planning to open across India starts operating in full swing. For the time being six centers located in Mumbai, Faridabad, Ahmedabad, Jaipur, Ludhiana and Ghaziabad have started functioning.