Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has benefited from the prepaid tariff hikes of the private telecom operators, including Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea, and Bharti Airtel. According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) report, BSNL gained over 1.1 million new subscribers during the month of December 2021. Amongst the private telcos, only Bharti Airtel gained new subscribers during the month, while Jio and Vodafone Idea lost subscribers. Jio saw its subscriber base reducing by 12.9 million users.
But right now, we are going to talk about why BSNL added new subscribers. While the state-run telco is far from launching 4G networks across the country, subscribers shifted to BSNL. The major reason behind this has to be the prepaid tariff hike got implemented by the private telcos around November end.
BSNL’s Added More Subscribers than Jio, Airtel, and Vi
The private telcos got rid of the low-paying customers, which will improve their average revenue per user (ARPU) figure, and BSNL added new subscribers. It was a win-win situation for basically everyone.
BSNL effectively added the most number of subscribers during the month, which is a statement in itself. It is just proof of the fact that once the 4G networks of the telco go live, people will prefer it over the private telcos because of more affordability. This data will certainly boost the confidence of BSNL.
BSNL Needs to Go on Offence With 4G
The state-run telco is working with the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the Centre of Development for Telematics (C-DoT) for conducting 4G trials. After multiple delays, the 4G trials are expected to finish within the month of February. The telecom minister of India, Ashwini Vaishnaw, has already said that BSNL’s 4G can launch by August or September of 2022. This is a great sign for the telco as the December data shows that BSNL has the ability to contend with the private telcos head-on.
