Strategic positioning of BSNL in the telecom space

Abstract

The telecommunications industry has evolved at a rapid pace throughout the world. Liberalization of Telecom Markets around the world in many countries has converted the erstwhile government monopoly operators into corporations who have to run their operations on business lines and profit. However, organizations like BSNL, by virtue of being public sector units, cannot ignore the social aspect. They have, not only to generate profits for their survival, but also take care of the social sector objectives set forth by the Government. Almost all private operators who have been given telecom licenses to operate have established themselves in the metros. Only now they have started moving into the rural areas because the operations in cities have reached saturation. In this report an attempt has been made to understand the various strengths and weaknesses of BSNL using the well-known Porter s Framework. It is also attempted to understand the newly developing and the high growth business areas in telecom and to predict how the markets will take shape in the future and what will be the position of BSNL in such markets. I have used various concepts related to S-curve techniques for analyzing trend and using those trends to predict the future. New and upcoming technologies like NGN and IPv6are also discussed and what BSNL ought to do in a changing technological environment. Finally at the end a set of recommendations are made for securing the position of BSNL in the telecom space.