The long-awaited BSNL’s pan Indian cellular project got a head start with the launch of its services by the Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee in Lucknow. In terms of reach, BSNL will exceed Bharti as it plans to cover all district headquarters, state highways and national highways. Presently, COAI (Cellular Operators Association of India) claims to provide coverage in 1481 cities and towns with the combined effort of 53 networks whereas BSNL plans to provide cellular services in around 800 cities by December end of its own.

A tremendous job which is not easy if one is talking about rollout of services in 60 -70 days. In Phase I , the company plans to cover 850 cities whereas 171 cities will be covered in phase II. Though, Bharti has a pan India coverage and is limited to 15 cellular circles whereas BSNL will have its footprint in all the circles except J&K, North East, and Assam. Now with the lifting of the ban by the Ministry of Communications, BSNL will be in a position to provide cellular services even in these circles in due course of time. BSNL also has the advantage of being number one in roaming across the country because of its presence in almost all the circles. It also has the advantage of having the entire network in 900 MHz technology whereas both Bharti and Hutch have a mix of both 900 MHz and 1800 MHz technology.

On the tariff front, BSNL’s tariff looks very attractive in comparison to bigger players like Bharti, Idea, and Hutch. The company has branded post paid as Cell One and it offers only two schemes which will be easy for the subscribers if they plan to shift to BSNL. In Plan 225, the monthly rental is Rs 225 and in Plan 325, the monthly rental is Rs 325. BSNL subcribers have the advantage of not being charged for roaming and calling line identification services. The subscribers also have an additional advantage of a 15 second pulse whereas the industry average is 30 seconds. In Plan 325, outoing STD/ISD call using BSNL NLD network will be free and one has to pay only cellular airtime. The company is also not planning to charge even for incoming STD/ISD calls. BSNL cellular subscribers also have the added advantage of free incoming calls from around 34 million fixed line subscribers whereas in the case of private operators one has to pay a PSTN charge of Rs 1.20 per call.

On the prepaid front, the company is offering services under the brand name Excel and it seems the brand is planning to excel in comparison to other service providers. Though, the net call value is more or less the same, BSNL subscribers will have significant advantage in terms of both outgoing and incoming calls (within BSNL network) both in peak as well as off peak hours. The company offers nil charges for all incoming calls in the off peak hours whereas most of the operators do charge a good amount. BSNL also has the advantage of not charging any airtime for cellular to cellular STD calls, so BSNL cellular subscribers can talk to any BSNL cellular subscriber in any circle by just paying the normal airtime charges. BSNL subscribers have an advantage of free SMS also.

The coverage and tariffs are excellent but the marketing of services is still way below private operators. One can hardly see any hoarding, print or TV commercial which talks about the pricing or about the brands whether Cell One or Excel. Service providers start advertising campaigns in a big way just after the launch of their services, but we haven’t seen anything in the circles where services have been launched. Inspite of having finalised the advertising agency, BSNL has not rolled its advertising campaign which will help in communicating to the people services available in all the operational circles at the earliest. The company should be very aggressive on the marketing front if it wants to make a mark in cellular services.

Quality of service is still a grey area which will be tested once people start using the service in highways and in different state circles. The company has to make significant strides in customer care also as this is the one thing which will separate winners from losers.

Pravin Prashant/Voice & Data