State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) will not increase tariffs in the near future and will focus on improving quality of services to retain the subscribers, which shifted from the private telecom operators recently post the tariff hike, the company’s chairman and managing director (CMD) Robert Ravi told reporters on Tuesday.
The company has started rolling out of 4G services and lower tariffs is one of the key advantages which it has over private telecom operators. In July added 2.9 million users after the private telecom operators increased tariffs by 10-27%. The state-owned telecom operator has a 7.6% market share with 88.5 million mobile users as of July end, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
“I can clearly say that we are not going to increase our tariffs in the near future,” Ravi said on the sidelines of the launch of certain user-centric services by BSNL and unveiling of the new logo. He added that there is a clear plan in place to make BSNL profitable.
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In a bid to increase its subscriber base, the company has launched seven new services including spam-blocking solutions, national Wi-Fi roaming service for its fiber-to-the-home (FTTH) customers at no extra charge, fiber-based intranet TV service with over 500 live channels free of charge, and automated SIM kiosks for customers to purchase, upgrade, or port SIM cards easily.
“BSNL is no longer a follower, it is now a leader…BSNL will now always be at the forefront of tech innovation,” communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said, adding that the new logo of the company symbolises alacrity, service above everything else and loyalty.
Scindia said, in the last six months since BSNL’s 4G rollout began, the company’s 4G subscribers jumped 2.5 times to 18 million from 7.5 million in March 2024. According to the minister, BSNL will have 100,000 4G sites by mid-next year and graduate some sites to 5G by that period.
The government is also considering an additional Rs 6,000 crore support to BSNL for acquiring 4G network equipments.
BSNL is targeting a 25% market share of the mobile subscriber base in the country by the end of next year. “We have brought in new services, which will help us improve our customer base and once our customer base increases, our profits will be there,” Ravi said, adding that there are a series of planned activities in the next few months, which will set the path for achieving the targeted market share.
BSNL has also launched private 5G network service for mining operations in partnership with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC). The company is looking to connect 16 industries, including mining, ports, and logistics. “We are working with various ministries and the DoT of the same. The first network is live in Maharashtra, where more than 50 mines are connected with a 5G private network by BSNL,” Ravi said.
Among other services, BSNL also launched India’s first direct-to-device (D2D) connectivity solution that converges satellite and terrestrial mobile networks to deliver seamless, reliable connectivity. “This groundbreaking technology is particularly useful in emergency situations and isolated regions, and can enable UPI payments in such areas,” the company said in a release.
On the BSNL spam blocking solution, Scindia said in the last 4-5 days, the company has blocked 13 million spam calls on an average.
In FY24, BSNL narrowed its net loss to Rs 5,367 crore from Rs 8,161 crore in FY23, on the back of lower expenses, especially finance cost, and higher non-operating income. Revenue from operations grew 1% to Rs 19,343.6 crore, missing the target of Rs 20,008 crore.
As per its agreement with the government based on the revival package, BSNL has a target to achieve Rs 35,960 crore revenue from operations by 2027-28.