Meanwhile, telecom reform in PMO, staff hang up on MTNL

One year later, PMO’s experiments with PSU mobile phones end due to poor connectivity, officials told to choose any service provider

The Prime Minister’s Office has just abandoned a public sector undertaking—and no one is complaining.

Faced with complaints of poor connectivity with their public sector mobile service provider MTNL, the PMO last week sent out instructions to all its officials allowing them the freedom to opt for other mobile service providers.

This move comes more than a year after the PMO made it mandatory for all its officials to use the services of MTNL’s mobile facilities citing security concerns and wider reach. However, several officials in the PMO experienced difficulties with MTNL’s services.

Confirming this move, official sources said right from the Minister of State in the PMO, Prithviraj Chauhan and National Security Advisor M K Narayanan to Principal Secretary T K A Nair, ‘‘everybody’’ (45 officials in all), has either changed their service to a private operator or are in the process of doing it.

They clarified that during the transition phase, some key officials have retained the old MTNL numbers along side their new numbers.

When asked to comment on this move, MTNL CMD R S P Sinha said that though there were initial glitches in their services, things have improved dramatically.

He however admitted that there are still some glitches in their international roaming facilities, which would be sorted out. While Sinha said that he would look into why the PMO has made this switch, he also said that MTNL has been a late starter in this business. He said the CBI, NTPC and even ONGC have opted for their services.

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Sinha explained that when a subscriber (of MTNL) uses its roaming facility, he/she is then dependent on BSNL’s network (MTNL operates only in Delhi and Mumbai). Any connectivity glitch is then on account of BSNL.