BSNL subscriber base shrinks to 8.94 cr in June

State-run telco BSNL has reduced its subscriber base by over 21 lakh wireless subscribers to 8.94 crore in June as it did away with non-active users.

"The reason for the decline is that we are removing non-active customers as part of the clean-up. The non-active users have been accumulating in the user base for the last 10 years and now we are removing them," media reports said quoting BSNL director (consumer mobility) Anupam Shrivastava.

Other state-run operator MTNL too lost 30,304 users during the month and its base got reduced to 33.66 lakh, according to Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.

The government is likely to merge PSU telcos BSNL and MTNL with organizational restructuring as it plans to revive the two firms.

Just recently, telecom minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said that the government is committed to the revival of BSNL. He cited inadequate investment in infrastructure expansion leading to delay in expansion of mobile network and paying market rate (of Rs 18,500.38 crore) for both 3G and broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum as the reasons for the downfall of the company.

Earlier, the minister had said that the government will invest Rs 39,458 crore in loss-making PSU telcos BSNL and MTNL.

"The financially-stressed public sector telecom companies that together have a debt of Rs 21,208 crore as of June-end, face declining revenue due to loss of market share, increasing expenditure and inability to invest in network expansion," the telecom minister had said.

BSNL has debts to the tune of Rs 3,335 crore in March 2012, which rose to Rs 6,448 crore in June 2014, while MTNL's debt has gone up to Rs 14,760 crore end of last month from Rs 9,648 crore in March 2012.

The market share of BSNL has got reduced to 12.3 per cent at the end of May 2014 from 13.27 per cent at end of March 2012, while MTNL stood at 4.83 per cent at May-end, 2014.