Revival of ailing telecom public sector firms, 5G technology trials and a new round of spectrum auction will be among the top priorities for the new government.

Some of the crucial decisions have been pending owing to the general elections for the past few months.

New Delhi: After facing cash crunch for some months, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is expecting normalcy in cash flows in the second quarter (July-September) of FY20, according to the BSNL Director (Finance) who blamed the "predatory pricing" for the current crisis in the sector and in the BSNL.

New Delhi: The Department of Telecom is learnt to have circulated a draft cabinet note for the allocation of 4G spectrum to BSNL and MTNL and implementation of a voluntary retirement scheme at the two loss-making telecom PSUs.

The department has sought comments of the key ministries on the proposals, an official source told PTI.

The BSNL board has given its approval to lay off 54,000 employees. Besides, in a further move to save costs, the state owned firm has also reduced the retirement age of its employees to 58 years.

According to a report published in the Deccan Herald, the BSNL board approved three out of 10 suggestions by the board set up by the government.

Cash-strapped telecom player BSNL, which faced issues with salary payments last month, plans to hive off its fibre assets into a separate company, which is expected to have a valuation of Rs 10,000-15,000 crore.

BSNL has about eight lakh route km of fibre infrastructure across India compared with Reliance Jio with 4.78 lakh route km (including 178,000 route km that it acquired from Reliance Communications) and Airtel’s 2.46 lakh route km and Vodafone Idea’s 1.56 lakh km, according to estimates.

State-owned telecom firm BSNL plans to raise Rs 5,000 crore through soft loans immediately in order to meet its operational expenses.

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has given a letter of comfort to the cash-starved BSNL for raising loans, which is a guarantee from the government.

New Delhi: The government has released pending dues of Rs 171 crore to cash-strapped MTNL for paying February salaries to employees, a senior official said.

On the other hand, BSNL will clear salary dues of around Rs 850 crore by March 20 from its internal accruals. Both companies have failed to pay salaries of their employees for last month, according to employees' representatives.

State-owned telecom firm BSNL, which has been in the red for the past more than five years, failed to pay February salaries to its around 1.76 lakh employees due to financial constraints.

This is the first instance of the company defaulting on salary payments underlining the tough times for it ahead.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will deliberate on revival of state-run BSNL and MTNL on Thursday as the financial condition of both the firms have deteriorated over the last couple of years due to increased competition.

According to sources, the Digital Communications Commission (DCC), the highest decision-making body of the DoT, will discuss various options to revive the sick telecom firms.

NEW DELHI: The government has asked struggling state-owned telco BSNL to look at all options, from a revival plan to disinvestment and even closure, as it looks to tackle the bleeding at India's largest loss-making PSU.

The direction to the company - which had accumulated losses of Rs 31,287 crore at the end of 2017-18 - was given following a meeting of top BSNL officials with telecom secretary Aruna Sundararajan, sources told TOI.

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