BSNL & MTNL losing market share
Even as India’s mobile telephony sector has been able to buck the slowdown, the performance of government-owned BSNL and MTNL has been deteriorating, despite having a one-year lead in the launch of 3G services.
According to DoT’s latest data, both the companies are losing market share to private operators in the mobile telephony segment. BSNL and MTNL together are down from a 17% market share at the beginning of March 2008 to 13.6% in August 2009. In contrast, the private sector’s share jumped from 83% to 86.4% during the same period.
This worsening performance, according to analysts, could impact the valuations, as and when the government wants to disinvest part of it stake in these two companies.
“The management and the government should focus on strengthening BSNL. Its existence has defeated cartelization and increasing of telecom tariffs. Listing will not solve any problem, except garnering funds for government,” BSNL’s Employees Union said on Friday, opposing both the listing and the deteriorating financial health of the firm.
