Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has finally been able to add wireless customers in the month of July 2024. The reality is that it is just a market reaction to the tariff hikes. Industry experts believe that after a certain period, these users will look to port back to private telcos when they don't get decent 4G services from BSNL. Thus, BSNL is trying to roll out 4G as fast as possible. However, the current rollout pace doesn't seem to be sufficient to compete with the private telcos. BSNL plans to roll out 4G in one lakh sites by mid-2025. Firstly, one lakh sites won't be good enough to cater to the PAN-India subscriber base, and then it would be too last as we are talking about a period that's one year from now.
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Jyotiraditya Scindia, Union Telecom Minister of India, shared BSNL's plan for success. In a post on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Scindia shared four points that will help BSNL in achieving success:
- Wider roll-out of the 4G network,
- Attracting and retaining new customers,
- Ensuring customer satisfaction, and
- Successful implementation of amended BharatNet initiative.
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At present, BSNL is also gearing up to launch 5G next year. 4G has been rolled out for 25,000 sites by BSNL, but the issue is network coverage. These 25000 sites are good for building a foundation, but the rollout must happen even faster. The reason for the delayed completion of 1 lakh site deployment is unknown. However, most likely, it would be because of technology or supply issues. BSNL should look to take advantage of the momentum it has created by adding users in July 2024, but sadly, it won't happen without the 4G rollout.
