BSNL loses nearly 1.5 million wireless users in Jan, highest in over a year

BSNL has 105.13 million wireless subscribers as of January's end. The business lost close to 9.2 million users in the previous 13 months up until January's conclusion.

According to the data from the TRAI (telecom regulatory authority of India), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) lost more than 1.5 million wireless subscribers in January 2023. Just like Vodafone Idea(Vi), the government-run carrier has been unable to add customers for a while. The government's 1.64 trillion relief plan is keeping BSNL afloat so far, although it has been losing subscribers for more than a year at a stretch.

The lowest of the four functioning telecom companies, BSNL has 105.13 million wireless subscribers as of January's end. The business lost close to 9.2 million users in the previous 13 months up until January's conclusion. 1.18 million new members were added to the company's database the previous time, in December 2021.

The lack of 4G networks with high speed is can be stated as BSNL's problem and the reason behind the loss of subscribers. Customers expect to stay connected to at least good 4G networks for a numebr of application demands even while the world is planning to transition to 5G.

Nonetheless, BSNL is currently primarily a 2G/3G providing operator, which accounts for its extremely low subscriber base when compared to telecom operators with 4G/5G networks. The state-run telco's market share in wireless subscribers decreased over the previous three years, from 10.3% in January 2020 to 9.21% in January 2023.

Along with having a declining subscriber base, the company also has lower rates than its competitors, which in some ways is limiting the growth of its average revenue per user(ARPU). BSNL makes around 2.5 times less in ARPU than independent players.

On the other hand, due to a decline in customers, the company's market share in the wireline segment also decreased from 27.5% in August 2022 to 25.55% as of January end this year. Reliance Jio overtook BSNL to become the lead in the wireline subscribers sector, according to August 2022 subscriber figures. In August 2022, BSNL held 7.13 million wireline users, by the end of January that number had dropped to 7.08%.

BSNL recorded poor performance in nearly 13 circles during the most recent fiscal year, which concluded in March 2023. Of which 8 circles where the telco has experienced a major decline in income include Uttar Pradesh (East), West Bengal, Sikkim, Chennai, Karnataka, Odisha, Andaman and Nicobar and Bihar. Circles where the telco has faced some income difficulty include Kerala, North-East, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir regions.

But the situation can be anticipated to soon change for BSNL. When it comes to the deployment of 4G, BSNL collaborates with Indian tech behemoths like Tejas Networks, Tata Consultancy services and even the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT). Government-owned telecom operator is also scheduled to employ a 4G stack that can be upgraded to 5G. The number BSNL subscriber base has touched by the end of January is not far from falling below the 100 million mark soon. It won't be wrong to anticipate that if BSNL does not launch its 4G and 5G services soon, it might be in a position of below 100 million subscriber threshold.