Everyone’s wondering including us, ‘Where is BSNL 4G?’ The telco has time and again promised that it will bring its 4G services very soon, but it has been many years now. The world is already shifting to 5G. While 5G is still going to take time to come into India, 4G has become very common and people have become too used to it. At a time such as this, BSNL is still surviving by offering 3G services. It is quite interesting to see that BSNL is still adding on new subscribers. But that said, even the new subscribers aren’t making a huge difference in the financials of the company. Let’s take a look at how 4G can solve the issues of BSNL.
Unrealised Market for BSNL 4G
BSNL has understood the power of offering freebies. It has been offering a number of free services to its customers on a majority of its plans. That has certainly helped the telco in increasing the number of subscribers it has. Another reason why BSNL is able to add subscribers is that it offers cheaper plans when compared to other telcos with the same benefits. One thing to note here would be that other telcos' such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea Limited offer 4G plans while BSNL offers 3G plans. So it only makes sense for BSNL to keep the pricing of the plans a little cheaper or else people would never go for it.
That said, there is a huge untapped market for BSNL if it introduces 4G services. BSNL 4G services just might change the whole competition scenario in the market. BSNL is competing with the other telcos right now by providing 3G services and yet it is adding subscribers. It is almost intriguing to think that what will happen once the telco introduces 4G services on a wide scale in India? With the 4G, it is almost impossible to deny that BSNL would add a ton of new subscribers in a go.
It is not that BSNL is not already providing 4G services in India. The telco is providing 4G services in select areas of India. The only thing that the telco needs to do is to introduce the service on a wide-scale to really reap the benefits out of it.
One of the most interesting pieces of information which have been making rounds in the market is that DoT (Department of Telecommunications) might ask BSNL and MTNL to locally test the consolidated networks for 4G before they choose whom they will use to upgrade to 4G network. If the local testing is found feasible, then it would be a huge thing for the telco and the Indian telecom industry since it would also make it quite easier for the telcos to upgrade to 5G and would support the government’s ‘Make in India’ initiative.
