BSNL Suffers Big Jolt, lost More than 3 Lakh Subscribers

In November last year, Reliance Jio got 12.1 lakh new wireless subscribers. Reliance Jio has approximately 46.12 crore subscribers. Vodafone Idea, which has been facing financial difficulties for the last few years, has suffered the maximum loss of 15 lakh customers. It has about 20.8 crore customers. After the increase in tariffs of private telecom companies last year BSNL Had received a large number of new subscribers. At the end of November last year, the company had about 9.20 crore wireless subscribers.

BSNL has improved its functioning in the last few months. The company plans to reduce its existing workforce by about 35 percent to strengthen its balance sheet. The board of BSNL has sent a proposal to remove 18,000 to 19,000 employees through VRS. However, this retrenchment plan has been strongly opposed by the BSNL employee union. The company has demanded around Rs 15,000 crore for VRS. The company spends about Rs 7,500 crore annually on the salaries of its employees, which is about 38 percent of its revenue. BSNL plans to reduce this expense.

The company will launch eSIM soon. Its 4G network may be available across the country by June this year. After this the company plans to launch 5G network. 5G networks of big private telecom companies like Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are present in large parts of the country. In this respect BSNL is far behind these companies. The company does not plan to increase tariffs any time soon. Recently, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had said that the financial recovery of the company is going on. BSNL plans to launch 5G service in the middle of this year. Scindia had said that the functioning of BSNL is getting stronger. It is very important for a country like India to have three-four telecom companies. He had told that the company’s revenue has increased by 12 percent in the last three-four years.