30-08-2013: media news on IDA rate........

BSNL Employees Industrial Dearness Allowance (IDA) Rates from October 2013 to be increased highly…

Industrial Dearness Allowance(IDA) rates are based on All India Consumer Price Index (IW) average for the specified months, and now the CPI [Industrial Workers(IW)] for the month of June and July 2013 increased and stood at 231 and 235 which are to taken for October 2013 Industrial Dearness Allowance(IDA).

Based on the average of Consumer Price Index [Industrial Workers(IW)], IDA of BSNL Employees is to be increased by 6.1% from 1st October 2013, where at present the Industrial Dearness Allowance(IDA) rate is 78.9% from 01.07.2013.

If 1 point increase in CPI numbers for the month of August 2013 will lead to a jump of 6.3% and if 2 point increase will lead to a jump of 6.6 % in IDA from 1st October 2013 and from 01.10.2013 IDA rates of BSNL employees is to be increased to 85% or more, and have a look for Old Industrial Dearness Allowance(IDA) rates of employees......

30-08-2013:Govt to bring parity between pay scales of MTNL, BSNL.....business line..

NEW DELHI, AUG. 26:  

The Government has decided to bring parity between the pay scales of employees at Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd with their counterparts in Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. This will be done at the time of next wage revision in 2017.

At present, MTNL workers get higher pay compared to BSNL employees.

REHAB PLAN

The move to bring parity is part of Government’s overall plan to revive the two public sector telecom companies. This will also mean that pension benefits of the two companies will be brought at par.

“The liability of the Government towards pension of absorbed employees of MTNL may be restricted to the equivalent scales of similarly placed employees in BSNL. In case MTNL decides to pay pension on the basis of existing pay scales, the liability arising from the same shall be borne by MTNL,” a top Government official said, adding that this was decided at the last meeting of the Empowered Group of Ministers.

MTNL has been told to get a written agreement with the employees to this effect. However, MTNL employees said the Government proposal may not be accepted by the workers’ union. High wage costs have been a concern for MTNL. Salary and pension expenses of MTNL employees are more than its revenues.

In addition to the pay scale, the Department of Telecom has presented to the EGoM a multi-pronged strategy to revive the two PSUs. For example, the DoT has offered to take over the debt of MTNL and BSNL in return for their surrendering broadband spectrum.

While MTNL has a debt of around Rs 8,400 crore, BSNL has taken loans of Rs 2,500 crore.

BROADBAND SPECTRUM

The DoT has proposed this to the Empowered Group of Ministers so as to save the Government from paying cash immediately to the two public sector undertaking.

BSNL and MTNL had taken broadband spectrum in 2009 without participating in the auction. The two PSUs were told to pay the final bid price quoted by the private players. As a result, BSNL ended up paying Rs 8,300 crore, and MTNL Rs 4,500 crore.

But after two years, the PSUs could not find a suitable business model to make money from wireless broadband services using this spectrum.

thomas.thomas@thehindu.co.in

(This article was published on August 26, 2013

31.08.2013: NFTE AI President met Director (HR) on 30-08-2013 and discussed about the Loss of pay to the Post 2007 appointees in the Pay revision:-The attention of Director (HR) was drawn over the delay in the settlement. The union was told that the Committee is meeting and last meeting was held on 29th August...

Courtesy: NFTE CHQ website..

30.08.2013: SNATTA WB conveys its sincere thanks to AI GS NFTE (BSNL) for writing to CMD for wage loss of post 01.01.2007 recruited BSNL employees.. Click here for the letter...

27.08.2013: Result of Direct Recruitment of Telecom Technical Assistants (TTADR) 2012 for West Bengal Circle is Declared today..

Please Visit http://210.212.15.100:8080/ttaresult2012/ website to view the result..
Roll No is required to fetch the result.

23.08.2013: NFTE All India President and Com. Michael met the authorities at BSNL HQR

The following issues were discussed:
 (1) Wage erosion settlement committee: The committee has not held further meeting. However, the reply of BSNL HQR in response to CAT orders will not stand in the way of settlement of the matter. 
(2) Modification in R/R of TTA: It is in process. The union will submit its views on getting the proposal from corporate office.


Courtesy: NFTE CHQ website

21.08.2013: Official order for Departmental JTO pre-basic training is issued by Circle office yesterday.. Click here for the copy of the order....

19-08-2013: unity is our strength....so increase our unity to achieve our Goal.....

17-08-2013: BSNL asked to speed up Rs 13,000 crore network project.......ET

KOLKATA: Telecom secretary MF Farooquihas asked Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL) to speed up its processes and award contracts to two vendors within a couple of months to supply devices for a Rs 13,000-crore communications network the company is building for the armed forces. 

15-08-2013: HAPPY INDEPENDANCE DAY, 2013........................salute to the martyrs....................salute to freedom fighter....

13-08-2013: CHQ conveys its sincere thanks to BSNLEU for writing to Sr.GM(Estt.) for provisioning of Superannuation Benefits to Direct Recruits of BSNL.

13-08-2013: SNATTA CHQ conveys its sincere thanks to NFTE (BSNL) for writing to Sr.GM(Estt.) for provisioning of Superannuation Benefits to Direct Recruits of BSNL

13-08-2013: wage erosoin issue update................................

Wage Erosion Issue Update: Friends, Today Com. Islam Ahmed, President, NFTE (BSNL) and Com. Rajmouli Secy. NFTE (BSNL) met Dir.(HR), Sr.GM (Estt.) & Sr.GM (SR) and discussed the Wage Erosion Issue for post 2007 recruited TTAs. It has been learned that the case is under due consideration of the Committee, formed by the Management & is moving in positive direction. Also, resolution of this issue is expected very soon. So Members are requested to be very calm & patient till the Committee gives its final decision.

SNATTA is committed for the favorable resolution of the Wage Erosion Issue.

Also, SNATTA CHQ conveys its sincere thanks to NFTE (BSNL) for continuously pursuing the Management for the early resolution of Wage Erosion Issue of post 2007 TTAs.

12-08-2013: BSNL estimates say it needs Rs 40,000 crore in 5 years...media news...

NEW DELHI: State-run telecom company BSNL needs to invest an estimated Rs 40,000 crore in the next five years to become profitable, Chairman and Managing Director R K Upadhyay said today. 

In order to retain its market share, BSNL is required to provide 182 million connections by 2017-18, which would be around 14 per cent of 1,300 million projected customer base. 

The BSNL by end of March last year had 121.65 million telecom customers, including mobile and landline users. 

"We have prepared estimates where we need to invest aggressively on our network. The estimates project investment of Rs 40,000 crore over a period of next five years," Upadhyay told PTI. 

The loss making PSU hopes to register a profit Rs 35 crore before tax by 2017-18 if it is able to execute the estimates. 

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has sought financial support from a Group of Ministers, headed by Finance Minister P Chidambaram. 

BSNL has been logging losses since 2009-10. The company's profits started declining after 2004-05, when it had made net gains of Rs 10,183 crore. 

The PSU was impacted heavily after it paid 3G and Wireless Broadband spectrum price in 2010 which cumulatively amounted to over Rs 18,500 crore. 

The company expects its total income to grow to above Rs 44,000 crore by 2017-18 from Rs 26,396 crore it posted for last fiscal. 

In the next five years, BSNL expects to add capacity of additional 40 million lines with focus on Internet business, generate around Rs 2,500 crore from its land and building assets monetisation and hive off some real estate assets after permission from government.

12-08-2013: BSNL revises 3G Data STVs and SMS Packs, 1GB@Rs 125 -effective 15 Aug.....

BSNL, India’s only pan India 3G mobile operator is now ready to offer 3G data plan at more affordable prices to Indian customers.  The company is reducing 3G data plan rates up to 45% from the existing prices for both prepaid and postpaid customers in all over India effective from 15Aug.

BSNL is now scrapping all its existing 2G/3G data STVs and will have only four types of data STVs. The MRP of 3G data STV for prepaid customers will starts from Rs 139 which offer 1GB of 3G data, at present this STV costs Rs 250.

The details of revised 3G data STVs for prepaid customers are as below

All the above STV will be effective from 15 Aug-2013

For postpaid customer, BSNL is more liberal and will offer data plans at more reduced prices .The 1GB data plan for postpaid customer will cost Rs 125 only.

The details of revised 3G data plans for Postpaid are as below

All these rates for postpaid will be effective from billing cycle starting from 1 Sept-2013.

BSNL is going to close all the below 2G data plans from 15 Aug-2013 because now onwards, the default profile of any BSNL customer will be 3G with no speed restriction that means as per the network availability and as per your device, you will get the speed of data usage.

From above it is also clear that for postpaid customer, those are subscribed to postpaid plans of FMC of Rs 725 and Rs 1500 and were enjoying unlimited free data usage, will now have to be satisfied themselves by reduced data usage of 1GB and 2GB respectively.

BSNL is having five Rate cutter SMS STVs and from 15 Aug-2013 , BSNL is going to modify the feature of all these Rate cutter SMS STVs. Now instead of reducing rates, a fixed number of free SMSs on any network will be allowed by using these STVs.

For heavy SMS sender, BSNL also have introduced a new SMS STV of MRP Rs 147 which allow user to send 3000 free SMS on any network within validity period of 30 days but user must be aware that as per TRAI guidelines, a user can send 100 free SMS per day only and beyond this limit, every SMS will be charged @50p per SMS.

12-08-2013: BSNL, MTNL given time till September 30 for BlackBerry interception.....

NEW DELHI: State-run BSNL and MTNL, which have missed three deadlines to ensure real-time interception ofBlackBerry services, have now been given time till September 30 to come up with a solution.

BlackBerry services were termed as security threat at one point of time by security agencies as they were unable to decode the communication made through devices and systems.

08-08-2013: Did Pakistan’s ISI penetrate BSNL’s systems? Govt fears Pakistani intelligence officers tricked a BSNL staffer and installed malware on the telco’s networks..click for details......Live Mint news

Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) may have successfully penetrated the database of state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd(BSNL) and also installed spyware in the telco’s systems, India’s interior ministry fears, according to documents reviewed by Mint.

Posing as Major Vijay from Indian Army headquarters, Pakistani intelligence officers had called up a BSNL employee in February this year, and followed it up by email communication with the staffer to obtain critical information. The home ministry is of the view that this email communication led to the ISI successfully installing malware on BSNL’s networks, and this may have “contaminated the telco’s computer systems and compromised the integrity and security of the system”.

The home ministry is worried that the spyware may enable Pakistan’s ISI to “identify and access communication links of sensitive organizations”, making the latter vulnerable to cyber attacks.

The documents show that the home ministry also fears that the alleged spyware will enable Pakistan to remotely monitor BSNL’s networks and operations, providing the ISI with the capability of disabling critical networks.

08-08-2013: Group of ministers considering debt waiver for BSNL, MTNL....et news

NEW DELHI: A group of ministers in charge of reviving state-run telecom companies Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam (MTNL) is considering taking over their entire debt and also waive off their licence fees and spectrum charges for three financial years, according to an internal telecom department document.

As on April 1, MTNL's total debt stood at Rs 8,477.35 crore while that for BSNL at 2,561.14 crore. BSNL's licence fee and bandwidth usage charges for the three fiscal years starting April 1, 2013 and ending March 31, 2016 amounting to Rs 8,930 crore and that for MTNL totalling Rs 11,149 crore could also be waived off as part of the revival package, the document added.

The proposals were discussed at an Aug 1 meeting of the ministerial panel and come at a time when both companies-faced with brutal competition from private operators-have been making huge losses.

The companies were further hurt by the debt they took to pay for the wireless broadband spectrum in 2010. While the two companies didn't need to take part in the broadband spectrum auctions, they were given the airwaves across all the circles they operated in by paying as much as the highest bidder.

The panel is also considering allowing the two operators to surrender bandwidth in some circles and to refund - totally or on a pro-rata basis - the amount that the two operators had paid for the airwaves.

While BSNL, which offers services in 20 of the 22 service areas, paid 8,313.80 crore for the bandwidth, MTNL, which provides services in of Delhi and Mumbai, paid Rs 4,533.97 crore. The proposal before the panel envisaged BSNL returning spectrum in Gujarat, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Kolkata, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, retaining the others. MTNL, on its part, would surrender bandwidth in both its service areas. In case of a full refund, BSNL stands to get Rs 6,724.51 crore while MTNL could get Rs 4,533.97 crore, the note showed.

04.08.2013: Jalpaiguri SSA depositrd Rs 2200/- towards Circle fund..

03.08.2013: JTO-LICE result declared to day in our WBTC Circle... Congratulations to all of our members.... Click here to view the merit list.....

01.08.2013: A meeting was held yesterday between SNATTA CHQ leaders and management regarding wage erosion issue..

Yesterday our all India President/snatta Manish Smadhiya, All India Organising Secretary/snatta Sri Anoop Mukherjee,and Sri Naresh ji along with Com. Islam Ahmed meet Sr. GM(SR) and Sr. GM(Estt.) and discussed the following issues...

1. Wage erosion issue.
2. Relaxation in qualifying marks of JTO LICE.
3. 30% superannuation issue.

Both the Sr. officers  were positive on the above issues, specially on wage erosion issue..