Anupam Shrivastava : The Man Who Scripted BSNL’s Transformation

In January 2015, Anupam Shrivastava was appointed CMD of BSNL and in the last one year he has been instrumental in scripting BSNL’s transformation.

After a long time, BSNL has shown profitability in FY2014-15. BSNL’s revenue for FY2014-15 increased by 2.4 percent to register Rs 28,654 crore whereas its services revenue increased by 4.2 percent to reach Rs 27,242 crore. On the other hand from an operating loss of Rs 691 crore in FY2013-14, BSNL registered an operating profit of Rs 672 crore in FY2014-15.

It is heartening to know that FY2014-15 has also shown the highest services revenue for BSNL in the last five years – FY2010-11 (Rs 27,045 crore), FY2011-12 (Rs 25,998 crore), FY2012-13 (Rs 25,655 crore) and FY2013-14 (Rs 26,153 crore) thanks to mobile expansion strategy of BSNL which helped the company to add 47 lakh mobile subscribers in FY 2014-15 thereby reversing the trend of negative growth in previous years. BSNL has also shown outstanding mobile data growth of 92 percent in FY 2014-15 registering a revenue of Rs 1,380 crore.

In the last 12 months, BSNL has added 1.84 million 3G subscribers and 0.22 million broadband subscribers showing a growth of 2.3 percent for both 3G and broadband. To increase its data carrying capability, BSNL has focused on Wi-Fi, data center, 3G, 4G and FTTH in a big way. Till date, BSNL has installed 650 Wi-Fi hotspots to give a big fillip to data. In terms of FTTH, BSNL has done well in 45 cities and increased its subscribers by 71 percent in a year’s timeframe.

Commenting on data revenue, Anupam Shrivastava, CMD, BSNL said, “We have missed on voice bus but we do not want to miss on the data bus. For any company data is the key and we are increasing data carrying capability and focusing on data centric business with main focus on Wi-Fi.”

“In the last one year, BSNL has strengthened its mobile data portfolio by focusing on Wi-Fi, strengthening its data network and core network (like OTN, MPLS and OFC), expansion of SGSN & GGSN, FTTH (Fiber to the Home) and others and this has resulted in huge jump in data revenue,” added Shrivastava.

BSNL’s Performance In 2015
Parameters – End-2014 – End-2015 – Growth (in%)
Mobile Towers – 77,920 – 78,754 – 1.07
OFC (in RKm) – 741,076 – 748,350 – 1.0
Mobile Subscribers – 79,340,005 – 81,178,657 – 2.3
Wi-Fi Hotspots – NA – 650 – NA
Employees – 225,512 – 211,495 – (-6.2)
Broadband Subscribers – 9,934,068 – 10,158,792 – 2.3
3G Subscribers – 8,919,408 – 9,473,885 – 6.2
IPTV Subscribers – 1,143 – 1,031 – (-9.8)
FTTH Subscribers – 35,752 – 61,053 – 70.8
NOFN OFC laid in 66,990 Kms and completed in 28,579 gram panchayats
NGN Capacity Migration is 1,524,899 lines working at 261 sites in Phase – I
NA Stands for Not Applicable
Source: BSNL, TeleAnalysis

The company is also investing a lot to increase its data carrying capability. In terms of Capex, BSNL has invested Rs 3,300 crore in FY 2014-15 and plans are to invest Rs 7,700 crore in FY 2015-16.

“Capex investment in the current fiscal is focused on mobile network, core network (OTN, MPLS, router and OFC), next generation network and data expansion,” commented Anupam Shrivastava.

Seeing its performance in calendar 2015, BSNL is also expected to do well in FY 2015-16 both in terms of revenue and profitability but its biggest concern in 2016 would be its 211,495 employees and tackling MTNL’s operations. In FY 2014-15 BSNL’s biggest expenditure was salary and perk which contributed Rs 14,963 crore. In order to be profitable, BSNL has to see how it can reduce salary and perk by giving an attractive VRS (voluntary retirement scheme) to its employees. Tackling MTNL’s operations would be a big task for BSNL if the government decides to handover its operations in FY 2016-17.