From correspondents in Delhi, India, 09:31 PM IST
The state-run telecom giant Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) Sunday lowered international call rates to some member countries of the South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (Saarc) by 15-35 percent.
The new move, effective from Saturday, would enable BSNL customers, both mobile and landline, to make calls to Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Bhutan at cheaper rates.
Under the post-paid plan 725, the BSNL cellphone users can make calls to the four countries at Rs.9 per minute instead of the existing Rs.10. Under the post-paid and pre-paid plans, call charges to these countries would be Rs.9 per minute instead of Rs.12.
For BSNL fixed line users, call charges to these four countries would now be Rs.9.60 per minute. Earlier, the charges were Rs.12 a minute.
BSNL is also planning to cut call rates to Middle Eastern countries, a company official said.
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BSNL will find it practicable to offer even better rates, local and international, but will find it difficult to reduce labour costs. It can plan and implement a massive training and redeployment shceme for its personnel, right from top to bottom. Hierarchy should be reduced by going for a flat type organization so that 'managers' and other seniors right up to top level will be required to reorient their styles with a lot of direct personal involvement using computers to monitor operations at all stages of projects and existing systems, and ensure far higher efficiency and customer-friendly responses with speed and effect.
If BSNL cuts its establishment and maintenance costs, it can effect rate cuts for ALL countries of the world, and such reductions can be not just tokenlike, but very substantial and even more competitive than those offered by inernational rivals. This looks impracticable mainly because of the fact that where one man is required, BSNL has put 10--100 people, and finds itself unable, for political reasons, to unsaddle itself of this overload.Such overload has come about because of managerial incompetence plus political and labour union misuses of a vast public enterprise for favors through jobs. that is the blunt truth. Hence at east in future, public enterprises should be privatised for their management and should be required to pay contractual fees as agreed to govt.
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