BSNL ready to take on foreign rivals in 3G space

PUNE, INDIA: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) today expressed confidence to survive competition from other telecom operators including foreign players in the third-generation (3G) space.

The Indian government today announced its guidelines for 3G spectrum allocation and Mobile Number Portability (MNP).

While welcoming India’s policy for third-generation (3G) spectrum allocation, S.D. Saxena, director (Finance), BSNL, said, "Even with the competition in view, we would be able to match with innovative and relevant offerings for the Indian customer."

He termed the announcement of the much-awaited policy as a good development. “We will try to initiate action on 3G now. After waiting for quite sometime it would now be possible to see 3G going forth. It would a challenging task but we will go now be able to initiate our roll-out."

Business research and consulting firm Frost & Sullivan welcomed the government’s decision to allow ten bidders including foreign telecom operators to participate in the 3G spectrum auction.

"It is good news for the industry that the policy is finally out after a series of postponed timelines. I expect the auctions now to be taken care of in the next two months. We can see some action in 3G by mid-2009 or end-2009 hopefully. It has been opened for ten players with foreign players getting a nod too. It's a good move,” Sourabh Kaushal, principal consultant, ICT Practice, Frost & Sullivan, South Asia and Middle East, said.

He added that India has to move fast since the policy announcement was delayed. “The policy (announcement) should have happened six months back.”

On the MNP guidelines, Saxena said, “This was about to happen as we are moving towards maturity as witnessed in other markets globally and MNP is a good move keeping the maturity curve in mind."