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.

State-run telecom player BSNL has solidified its representative benefits and is undertaking other measures to cut down its use radically, pointing to support itself within the current advertise situation, its chairman and overseeing executive Anupam Shrivastava told DNA Cash.

With all the taken a toll cutting exercices put together, the company has been able to spare Rs 2,500 crore final year and a comparative sum is anticipated to be spared within the continuous fiscal.

BSNL recently announced Bharat Fiber, which is a fibre-to-the-home (FTTH) internet service for its broadband customers. Taking on rivals like Jio GigaFiber and Airtel V-Fiber, the service is said to offer 35GB data per day at as low as Rs 1.1 per GB. To make sure that users can express their interest in the new service, BSNL has commenced bookings for Bharat Fiber via its online portal.

NEW DELHI: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) plans to roll out out voice telephony over WiFi (VoWiFi) service through ambitious ‘carpet WiFi’ networks that ensures seamless coverage.

“We are going to ask companies to deploy networks with advanced equipment so as to take care of WiFi calls wherein BSNL can provide bandwidth on a revenuesharing model,” BSNL chairman Anupam Shrivastava told ET.

New Delhi: The government think tank Niti Aayog have objected the proposal of preferential equity infusion in the two PSUs -- BSNL and MTNL -- amounting to nearly Rs 14,000 crores for acquiring 4G spectrum observing that the returns on such high investments from them are almost nil and it is not essential.

The department of telecom (DoT) had sought Niti Aayog’s views on the 4G spectrum allocation proposals for PSUs — BSNL and MTNL — that might cost the exchequer about Rs 14,000 crore.

State-run telecom operator BSNL’s financial performance continues to deteriorate but it can take some solace in being able to improve its record on the customer management front.

The company has managed to reverse customer attrition over the last 3-4 years, which it says is due to competitive plans and tariffs.

Telecom regulator Trai Friday recommended that spectrum charges for state-owned BSNL's satellite phone services be fixed at 1 per cent of the revenue accrued from such services, replacing the current model of formula-based levy.

If the regulator's recommendations are accepted by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), it could drive down the cost of using satellite phone services by nearly 50 per cent,

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