Kuldip Singh had a classical middle class upbringing in Amritsar where he grew up. He was lucky enough to go to a better-than-average private school where the same values that were inculcated by his father at home were reinforced in the classroom.
Singh was able to observe, early on, the importance of honesty and integrity. “My father did not succeed in various jobs because of his values; he was just too honest. Later, he ran his own company. For some people, that might mean that he failed. If you look only at the material side of life, yes, he failed. But if you look at contentment, self-respect and happy relationships, he was a great success,” says Singh.
Singh is in a rush on the day of the interview. An unscheduled meeting with the telecommunications minister leaves very little time for the interview, but he tries not to disappoint by squeezing in some time, although he keeps looking at his watch and attending to the files and questions brought in by staff in his 12th floor office in Jeevan Bharti building in Connaught Place, Delhi, which is so close to a mosque that when the afternoon azan sounds, it booms in his room.
Singh believes that today’s generation is missing out on the moral education that he received from his school and his parents. The culprit is the new competitive spirit evident everywhere. “If you stress only on the need to compete, then ethics and values take a back seat. If you are only teaching children how to be competitive, then what can they possibly know of cooperation?”
Amritsar in the 1960s, Singh says, was a peaceful town with little traffic and pollution, where people ate simple food and led uncomplicated lives. After attending DAV College in Amritsar where he studied science, Singh read engineering and also completed his MBA. He joined the Overseas Communications Service (now Videsh Sanchar Nigam Limited) in Pune and worked in the development and training wing. His work revolved mainly around the development of software rather than training.
After four years, in 1978, he joined the National Informatics Centre (NIC) in Delhi where he helped maintain the computer network for the government. In 1981 he married Sulekha, who currently teaches science at St Columba’s School in the capital.
Singh stayed with NIC for three years, till 1981, when he sat for the highly competitive Indian Engineering Service exam.This took him to the Indian Telecom Service, working for the Department of Telecommunications.
The first two years were spent being trained at Jabalpur and Ghaziabad; then he was posted to Delhi Telephones (now MTNL) to work on introducing computerised exchanges. In 1986, he moved to the MTNL training centre at Ghaziabad where he spent over five years teaching and developing telecommunication software. One of his devices was the familiar lock which people used (and still use) to block the STD facility on their phones through a password. “In those days, you paid Rs 24 per minute for an STD call and so it was a heavily guarded facility,” he says.
As director, technical, at MTNL, his main task now is to bring the latest technology to MTNL customers. “We have the latest to offer. We have got everything that everyone else in the industry has got, and we also have some technologies that they don’t have. We are one or two steps ahead on this front. For broadband, we are using a technology that most companies around the world don’t even have. That’s what allows us to give customers such high speeds,” he says.
Whether it’s IPTV, video-on-demand, voice over IP or time-shifted TV, Singh is determined to offer the latest telecom technologies to his customers. If viewers miss a favourite TV programme, timeshifted TV allows them to watch it at a convenient time later.
“The most satisfying thing about my job is bringing the latest technology to people. It’s really wonderful, this revolution in telecom that we’ve had, thanks to some far-sighted people who took the right policy decisions such as allowing private participation in the sector.Thanks to those liberalisation policies, we are far ahead in telecom whereas we lag behind in other areas of infrastructure,” says Singh.
Singh has more than 30 years’ experience in the telecom sector. Prior to his current position, he was general manager, planning, where his responsibilities included longand short-term planning, network planning and introduction of new technologies in the two cities where MTNL operates ?? Delhi and Mumbai.
Singh believes that competition from the private sector was the best thing that happened to MTNL even though the early years of dealing with competition from the new private entrants were tough.
Aggressive and more nimble-footed players like Bharti, Hutchison, Tata and Reliance were making rapid inroads into MTNL’s turf. Even state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), operational in all the circles except Delhi and Mumbai, was getting more aggressive.They were snapping up subscribers, eating into MTNL’s market share, and competing on tariffs and innovative services.
By early 2000, MTNL was truly on shaky ground, its market share, bottomline and confidence badly bruised. During the period 2001-06, MTNL’s revenues and net profits declined at a compounded rate of 2 per cent and 18 per cent respectively.
But Singh believes that the company’s vast experience, extensive network infrastructure, and sound technical personnel eventually worked to its advantage.MTNL decided to build on its strengths. It started by sprucing up its operations and adding new revenue streams such as internet and later broadband, improving service quality, introducing more value-added services at competitive rates, and pushing up its mobile services.
The measures showed some results. It managed to claw back a 16-17 per cent market share. “Our topline has now stabilised, or rather we were able to maintain it despite the low tariffs and a falling market share. I now expect our revenues to rise steadily,” he says.
Broadband is an area that gives Singh cause for satisfaction. Having launched broadband services in January 2005, this is now a thrust area for MTNL. Tariffs have been kept deliberately low, which has helped to pull in new subscribers.
MTNL is certainly learning to be faster and more nimble. While rivals were still contemplating the commercial launch of IPTV services, MTNL went ahead and offered the service in the two metros.Singh expects IPTV to be as much of a sweeping success as broadband.
Singh says that the company has a two-pronged strategy ?? to offer its customers the best and latest services, and look abroad for expansion opportunities.It has set up a subsidiary in Mauritius where it has been awarded a licence for fixed, GSM and international long distance services. It also has a joint venture in Nepal and is exploring opportunities in Sri Lanka and Kenya.
In his spare time, Singh enjoys reading books on science and philosophy. He also likes to spend time with Sulekha and their 26-year-old daughter Neha, a software executive.
