BSNL to lease infrastructure to improve business

NEW DELHI, INDIA: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) plans to lease spare capacity of its 60,000 towers across the country to private players and push on its data offers to reduce its losses and improve its financial health, the government said Friday.

"BSNL has about 60,000 towers across the country. BSNL management has decided to lease out spare capacity of its towers to other private players on commercial terms and conditions to generate incremental revenue," Minister of state for communications and IT Milind Deora said in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha.

The telecom operator has posted a loss of Rs. 6,384 crore for the financial year 2010-2011.

It is also pushing on data usage and value added services, Deora said.

Among other steps taken by BSNL are strengthening of stable revenue streams through concerted focus on broadband and enterprise business with major focus on government projects.

The firm is also focussing on customer care, service delivery and asset management.