Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has narrowed its loss to Rs 1,470 crore during the first quarter of FY24. But there was also a significant decline in the overall revenues of the telco. BSNL saw a 33% sequential fall in its revenues from operations to Rs 4,290 crore during the first quarter. This decline in revenues can be attributed to several reasons, amongst which the major one remains the wireless services business of the company. BSNL is still offering legacy network services to customers, whereas the private telcos have even started offering 5G to customers throughout the country.
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As per an FE report, the telco's loss in the preceding quarter, which was Q4 FY23, was Rs 2,696 crore. Compared to that, BSNL has severely narrowed the loss for itself during the first quarter, which is a positive thing. During Q1 FY24, the telco's overall expenses dipped by 15.3% to Rs 6,108 crore. However, at the same time, the revenues falling didn't help much with the bottom line of the telco.
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BSNL is currently on its path to deploying homegrown 4G/5G. The telco will be taking the equipment from Tejas Networks, a Tata Group-owned company. TCS (Tata Consultancy Services), another firm under the Tata Group, will act as the systems integrator for BSNL. BSNL's 4G rollout is expected to start soon. The telco has already done a beta launch in the state of Punjab. There are over 200 test sites live through which BSNL is taking feedback so that it can go ahead with a large-scale rollout once everything is alright.
BSNL has been losing customers for quite a while. This is definitely affecting the telco's ability to generate more profits. It will be interesting to see if the telco recaptures some of the lost market share once it rolls out 4G and 5G in the coming years.
