Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the state-run Indian telecom operator, has benefited recently from the tariff hikes implemented by the private telecom operators. While BSNL added new subscribers in the months of July and August 2024, the private telcos lost users. During Q1 FY25 results, Vodafone Idea's CEO, Akshaya Moondra had said that they had noticed the trend of their customers leaving the network and going to BSNL. However, at the same time, Moondra had signalled that they are not worried about this trend as the customers would eventually return to the private telcos when they realise they want decent 4G network services back.
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For the unaware, while BSNL is rolling out 4G at the moment, it's network coverage and capacity is nowhere near what the private telcos are offering to the customers.
At the recently held Q2 FY25 investors call, Vi's CEO has confirmed that the trend that they noticed earlier is reversing. It is eventually coming to a point where it was before the tariff hikes. Thus, BSNL will likely not add many more users on the back of the tariff hike that the private telcos implemented. This was bound to happen, however, the main concern for Vodafone Idea is to actually add new 4G subscribers. The telco also plans to roll out 5G in the coming months, and that might help in adding new users.
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At the end of Q2 FY25, Vi lost 4G users, while its overall susbcriber base dipped from 210 million to 205 million. The active user base of the telco declined by 8.8 million from 188.3 million to 179.5 million. The next two quarters will eventually show how Vi does in the subscribers department, and whether the rollout of 4G and network/coverage expansion had any positive effect or not.
