Feeling the heat of competition, state-run telecom service providers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) has come together to sign an agreement (Memorandum of Understanding (MoU)) to share each other networks and infrastructure to offer pan-India solutions to customers and to enhance operational efficiency. The partnership mainly focus on mobile communications, infrastructure sharing and enterprise business for information technology and telecom services.
BSNL operates in 20 telecom circle in India, whereas MTNL operates in the two telecom circles which include Delhi and Mumbai. They both offers 2G GSM, 3G, Fixed landline and Broadband services in this telecom circles. As of this new agreement both telecom operators will share each others infrastructure assets such as ducts, buildings, towers, intelligent network services, ISD phone networks and toll-free services. Along with it they also intend to improve customer services and to offer various pan-India services.
For example BSNL can use MTNL network to offer customers with roaming plans in the two telecom circle Delhi and Mumbai, similarly MTNL can offer customers with roaming plans in the 20 of BSNL telecom circles. They can even opt for having free pan-India roaming plans for customers.
“We are going to provide now a very cost-effective solution for their pan-India requirements, We are going to share the resources of each other, which will ultimately bring down the cost of operations.” commented R K Upadhyay, CMD of BSNL.
“We will be signing service level agreement and are committed to provide the agreed service delivery and service assurance. An enterprise vertical on the similar pattern of BSNL has been also created in MTNL on the philosophy of customer segmentation. This will help us to design and provide customised services as per their need,” said A.K. Garg, CMD, MTNL.
We can hope by this agreement the state-run telecom operators can regain it strength in the highly competitive market ruled by Airtel, Vodafone, Idea, Reliance and others.