Telecom network operator BSNL today said its Capex (capital expenditure) for fiscal 2015-16 will be Rs 7,700 crore, Hindu Business Line reported.
The strategy of the state-run telecom operator will be to make substantial investment in next generation network (NGN), mobile phase 7 expansion, Wi-Fi, among others.
The Rs 7,700 crore Capex indicates a significant increase in its investments as compared with the capital expenditure of Rs 3,300 crore last year.
“BSNL is on the path of revival. July onwards, additional customers have doubled. Mobile network portability has become positive in BSNL’s favor which means it has seen a net gain in customers via MNP,” said BSNL CMD Anupam Shrivastava at a press conference.
The loss making BSNL has set up 25,000 additional mobile towers in the last two years. BSNL has more than a lakh towers in the country.
BSNL has achieved 42 percent increase in revenue from tower business in 2014-15. “We plan to set up a subsidiary tower company to monetise our tower assets. While we have the Cabinet nod, we are waiting for inter-ministerial committee recommendations for this,” he said.
The company plans to focus on data to drive growth and is enhancing mobile network data capacity to improve coverage and quality of service. BSNL has achieved 250 terabytes throughput in mobile per day as compared with 70 terabytes in 2013.
BSNL said its income from services has increased 4.16 percent to Rs 27,242 crore in 2014-15. BSNL posted an operating profit of Rs 672 crore for the financial year 2015 on the back of fall in administrative costs and jump in revenues. The company had posted an operating loss of Rs 691 crore in the previous fiscal.
