Even as Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited employees plan to go on a strike from Wednesday opposing the government's move to take BSNL public, the chief of the largest telecom company in the country is convinced that its employees will not stop the company from going public.
This comes in line especially at a point when the employees have been offered a carrot of 500 shares worth Rs 1.5 lakh to 2 lakh.
According to BSNL CMD Kuldeep Goyal, the fears of employees are unfounded and hopes that the management will convince them.
But sources in the ministry have indicated to NDTV that the IPO may not come this fiscal and it will be left for the next government to finish the task.
However, despite uncertainty on the IPO front, the company is going ahead with its other mega plans and it is trying to hive off its tower business.
Goyal said that he expect the tower subsidiary to come very soon way before the IPO comes.
At the time when RCom and Tata Tele is trying to kick start their GSM services, BSNL has got government’s approval to launch mobile services with CDMA technology.
The state-run telecom major is already upgrading its technology to start the services early next year which it hopes will keep it ahead of the curve.