It's official now: state-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd's IPO plan has been put on the backburner.
BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal said, "We will do it when there's need for funds," when speaking to media on the sidelines of a conference here on Thursday.
Earlier this year, BSNL had indicated that a float was in the offing which could raise as much as Rs 40,000 crore.
The announcement created much buzz as it would have been India's largest IPO.
Subsequently, the BSNL employees' union protested against the plan, and even communications minister Andimuthu Raja gave a statement saying that talk of an IPO was premature.
Meanwhile, BSNL is planning to start CDMA (code division multiple access) service in a big way across the country by the end of this financial year.
It already has 4.5 million CDMA (though not full mobility) subscribers, and expects to add another 2.5 million by the year end.
In GSM (global systems for mobile communications), it has 36.2 million subscribers, and hopes to add 17 million by the year end.
Currently, if both wireline and wireless subscribers are taken into account, BSNL has the largest user base in India at 72 million.
When asked to explain his long-term strategy on GSM and CDMA and how the two would pan out in terms of numbers, Goyal said, "the bulk of our mobile subscribers would continue be GSM users."
As to when BSNL would enter the important markets of Delhi and Mumbai, Goyal only said, "not now."
While BSNL operates across the country except in Delhi and Mumbai, the other public sector telco, MTNL, is present only in Delhi and Mumbai.
On the BlackBerry service, Goyal pointed out that BSNL would launch it only when the controversy is resolved over security issues. At present, Bharti, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and BPL offer BlackBerry. Tata Teleservices is also waiting to launch the BlackBerry service. But, DoT and makers of BlackBerry, Research In Motion, are in talks to resolve the security concerns related to use of the device.
BSNL chairman and managing director Kuldeep Goyal said, "We will do it when there's need for funds," when speaking to media on the sidelines of a conference here on Thursday.
Earlier this year, BSNL had indicated that a float was in the offing which could raise as much as Rs 40,000 crore.
The announcement created much buzz as it would have been India's largest IPO.
Subsequently, the BSNL employees' union protested against the plan, and even communications minister Andimuthu Raja gave a statement saying that talk of an IPO was premature.
Meanwhile, BSNL is planning to start CDMA (code division multiple access) service in a big way across the country by the end of this financial year.
It already has 4.5 million CDMA (though not full mobility) subscribers, and expects to add another 2.5 million by the year end.
In GSM (global systems for mobile communications), it has 36.2 million subscribers, and hopes to add 17 million by the year end.
Currently, if both wireline and wireless subscribers are taken into account, BSNL has the largest user base in India at 72 million.
When asked to explain his long-term strategy on GSM and CDMA and how the two would pan out in terms of numbers, Goyal said, "the bulk of our mobile subscribers would continue be GSM users."
As to when BSNL would enter the important markets of Delhi and Mumbai, Goyal only said, "not now."
While BSNL operates across the country except in Delhi and Mumbai, the other public sector telco, MTNL, is present only in Delhi and Mumbai.
On the BlackBerry service, Goyal pointed out that BSNL would launch it only when the controversy is resolved over security issues. At present, Bharti, Vodafone, Reliance Communications and BPL offer BlackBerry. Tata Teleservices is also waiting to launch the BlackBerry service. But, DoT and makers of BlackBerry, Research In Motion, are in talks to resolve the security concerns related to use of the device.
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