Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been trying to turn its fate back from a loss making telco to a profitable one. The state-run telecom operator already managed to register a net profit of Rs 262 crore in the Oct-Dec, 2024 quarter. Now the telecom minister of India, Jyotiraditya Scindia has highlighted the same to the Rajya Sabha. Replying to questions, Scindia said that BSNL has managed to record net profit for the first time after 18 years. At the same time, he said that the telco added 55 lakh new users. BSNL added new users between July and October 2024 because the private telecom operators had hiked the tariffs. Since then, BSNL has come back to losing users.
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Scindia said, "After 18 years, BSNL for the first time has achieved a net profit of Rs 262 crore in October-December quarter, which has been achieved for the first time in 18 years under Prime Minister Narendra Modi's leadership."
The net profit is definitely a good sign, but there has to be more quarters where the telco can manage to register profits for it to make any material difference. BSNL's 4G rollout is almost complete, and the telco will look to shift to 5G rollout later in the quarter. That should help the company in adding new users and most importantly retain high paying subscribers.
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"You will be glad to know that from June 2024 till February 2025, BSNL for the first time in its history has climbed from 8.55 crore customers to 9.1 crore customers. We have added 55 lakh customers in the last six to seven months," Scindia added.
BSNL has managed to turn profitable because the company has "squeezed its costs", said Scindia. EBITDA (earnings before interest tax depreciation and amortisation) has multiplied by three times because of this.
