Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been adding new subscribers for several months while the private telecom operators have seen a decline in their user base. This happened particularly due to the tariff hikes implemented by the telcos. However, only due to a price difference, BSNL can't keep adding customers forever. Customers need more than just saving a few hundred rupees with BSNL recharges every year. They need quality services, and that is where BSNL can't compete with the private telcos at the moment.
Vi's CEO has confirmed that the trend where its customers were leaving the network to port into BSNL is now reversing and will soon be back to the pre-tariff-hike levels. So has BSNL lost a golden opportunity here?
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BSNL Added Several Million Users but Might Lose Them as Well
There was a reason why BSNL wasn't adding new users for several years and why its overall subscriber base had fallen below 100 million while its active user base had fallen under 50 million. The reason was simple - inferior networks. Private telcos not only have better networks, but they have a more modern system in place to talk with customers and carry out tasks.
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While BSNL is trying to upgrade its network quickly, it is just not fast enough to keep all of the customers the state-run telco added recently. BSNL added more than 5 million users in the short term. While it doesn't look much in the long scheme of things, for BSNL, this was a huge number. But this only happened due to tariff hikes, something which the private telcos did. It didn't happen because customers/users liked BSNL's network services, it happened because they were angry about the hikes from the private telcos.
Once they discover that they can't get the level of services they were getting with the private telcos, they will switch back. Vi's CEO has confirmed that this what is happening now.
So has BSNL lost a golden opportunity to retain these customers? Well, we can't say for sure whether all of the customers that ported in will go out as well. But we can say one thing, if BSNL had a better network experience where it had PAN-India 4G, it would have fared much better for the state-run telco.
