The Hindu Business Line : BSNL tenders for 1.5 cr SIM cards

IN a bid to regain lost ground and become the largest GSM cellular operator, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), has floated a "mega" tender for 1.5 crore SIM cards to be utilised for its post-paid ( CellOne) and pre-paid (Excel) mobile connections across the country.

According to official sources, the severe shortage of SIM cards had dented the growth in its subscriber base, enabling private operators to latch on to potentialcustomers. In fact, over the past couple of months, SIM cards for a BSNL connection were being sold in the black market because of the shortage.

The sources noted that the company has, therefore, decided to place an order in bulk this time around, instead of going in for tenders in a phased manner. Bids have, therefore, been invited from Indian companies registered to manufacture in the country and also having obtained a clearance from the Reserve Bank of India.

The sources said that this has been decided by the board of the company after DoT asked the management to chalk out a viable strategy that would help it face competition from the private operators, especially in the cellular services.

Although the company, on the back of an impressive performance in the first half of 2003, had set an internal target of end June 2003 to overtake Bharti as the largest GSM cellular operator, it continues to lag behind. The growth in its subscriber base has taken a further dent with the success of Reliance Infocomm's schemes for its CDMA mobile services

BSNL is now able to attract an average of 1.2 lakh customers per month as against close to three lakh subscribers in the same period last year. The DoT has taken note of this slowdown and asked BSNL to prepare an effective strategy to overtake the private operators.

A report on collection efficiency and collection figures for cellular services has also been sought.