The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Festival of connectivity

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Saturday, Jul 19, 2008
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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Festival of connectivity

C. Gouridasan Nair

BSNL markets nearly 12,000 new mobile, landline and broadband connections at the BSNL Mela.

Photo: S.Gopakumar

Reaching out: The BSNL Mela in Thiruvananthapuram proved to be a different experience for those who visited the fair from July 16 to 18. -

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: It is not often that government-run companies show the muscle to deal body blows to their competitors. But when it becomes a question of survival in a highly competitive market, even PSUs would have to go in for aggressive innovations to stay ahead of the pack.

Bharath Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL), the government-run telecommunication major, has shown that it has what it takes to beat the competition, regardless of its many handicaps. For the last three days, the State capital has been witnessing ‘BSNL Mela,’ a festival of connectivity, where hundreds could be seen milling around a dozen counters taking new broadband and mobile connections, reviving long-dead landlines and experimenting with new connectivity arenas such as EVDO, which allows mobility.

The festival resulted in some 7,000 new mobile, nearly 2,000 landline and roughly 2,500 new broadband connections being given and close to 1,000 landline connections being revived, all in three days. The new broadband connections were mostly in place the day the order was placed.

It is not the numbers, but the way they were made possible that makes the ‘BSNL Mela’ noteworthy. The marketing festival became a success mainly because of the unity of purpose shown by the BSNL top brass and employees. Preparing the ground for the ‘mela,’ BSNL Principal General Manager George T. Mathai wrote to his colleagues: “In the changed circumstances, we must be able convince our customers that we are not simply employees in a government institution, but professionals imbued with the corporate culture.”

The result was there to see when the festival opened with some 300 employees working from 9 a. m. to 10 p.m. from July 16 to 18, patiently attending to each visitor and her/his need and grievance. Said R. Muralidharan Nair, BSNL Employees Union assistant general secretary, “This is a new beginning. Although it is eight years since we became a company, the corporate culture has still not got imprinted in our minds. With this festival, we have shown that we too can do what the private players do. The best thing is that the walls in this organisation have come down and both officers and employees are working shoulder to shoulder to make this mela a success.” Surendran, FNTO district secretary, concurred. “Earlier, we used to serve only people who would come to us. Today, we are going to our consumers. We are not sticking to hierarchies or union loyalties here,” he said.

“The interaction at the mela would help in ensuring better bonding with our customers. We plan to organise such melas at the taluk level so that the rural people can also benefit from it,” said BSNL Chief General Manager K.S. Sreenivasan.

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