BSNL to spend Rs 60,00 cr in quest to be GSM No. 1

NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is planning an investment of Rs 22,880 crore for the year till March 2008, chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal said on Friday.

The telecom behemoth, which is finalising a vision statement that would help it become the No 1 global system for mobile communications (GSM) player by 2010, plans to invest over Rs 60,000 crore in three years.

The vision statement targets over 100 million mobile subscribers (mainly GSM). It plans to have 18 million broadband subscribers by the end of 2010, by adding 6 million every year.

The BSNL vision of 100 million mobile users is comparable with that of Bharti and Vodafone Essar.

Of the Rs 22,880 crore for the year, Rs 3,069 crore will be spent on fixed and WLL telephony, Rs 7,417 crore on mobile, Rs 3,163 crore on broadband and internet, and Rs 9,230 crore on other services, Goyal said.

BSNL is currently ranked third in GSM mobile subscriber numbers, after Bharti and Vodafone Essar.

Till recently, it was the second-largest, after Bharti. It slipped to the third slot on little capacity addition and the delay in finalising the 45.5 million GSM phone lines.

On whether BSNL would get back to the No 2 position in terms of subscriber numbers, Goyal said: “We would be number two next year”.

“To become number one, we have to work a bit harder,” he said.

When UK’s Vodafone acquired a controlling stake in Hutch Essar earlier this year, Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin had said that Vodafone Essar would aim for the No 1 position with a market share of at least 25% over the next 3-4 years. Estimates suggested that Vodafone Essar is aiming for at least 125 million mobile subscribers by the end of 2010.

Bharti, the GSM leader, has stated that it would retain the No 1 slot. Bharti is also looking for a 25% marketshare and 125 million GSM subscribers by the end of 2010.