Mumbai12 minutes ago
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After the private mobile companies increased their tariffs by 25% from July, customers are returning to Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL). BSNL, which had more than 18% share in the Indian telecom market two decades ago, has now lost its current share to less than 2.5%.
In May, it gained 15 thousand new customers, while in June it lost 58 thousand. However, now the situation is changing. The company has added more than 15 lakh customers in the first 15 days of July. In the last 8 years, it had lost 7 crore (76%) customers. Now, in 15 days, 6.34% new customers have been added.
Speed up in port too: The number of customers porting to BSNL i.e. shifting from other companies is also increasing. UP, Bengal, Andhra are on top in this.
The benefits of improving services
Telecom expert Pankaj Mahendru said that BSNL has upgraded more than 25 thousand towers. Apart from this, the process of installing 20 thousand new towers is going on. This has improved the services. As a result, new customers have started increasing rapidly. But in terms of data speed, voice quality, coverage area, the government company is still much weaker than the private players. There is still a long way to go to compete with private companies.
BSNL will start 4G service across the country from August
BSNL will start 4G service across the country from August this year. News agency PTI has given this information on 6 May quoting an official. According to the agency, this service of BSNL will be completely based on indigenous technology.
This indigenous technology has been developed by a consortium in partnership with IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and telecom research organization C-DoT. Using this, BSNL has started 4G service in Punjab and has also added about 8 lakh customers.
According to PTI, BSNL officials have claimed a maximum speed of 40-45 megabits per second on the 4G network, which has been launched in the premium spectrum band of 700 megahertz (MHz) as well as the 2,100 MHz band, during the pilot phase.
BSNL has started 4G service in Punjab and has added around 8 lakh customers.
The technology was installed in July last year
According to the report, C-DOT’s 4G technology core is performing very well in the BSNL network in Punjab. It was installed in July last year. ‘It takes 12 months to prove the success of such a complex technology, but C-DOT core has been stabilized in just 10 months.
will upgrade to 5G
Core network is a group that includes network hardware, devices and software related to telecom services. This group helps in fundamental services in telecom networks such as aggregation, call control, switching, authentication, charging, gateway functionality, etc.
TCS, Tejas Networks and state-owned ITI have received orders worth around Rs 19,000 crore from BSNL to deploy a 4G network, which can be upgraded to 5G later.
1.12 lakh towers are being installed
BSNL is in the process of installing 1.12 lakh towers for 4G and 5G services across India. The company has installed more than 9,000 towers for 4G service across the country. Of these, more than 6,000 towers are in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Western Uttar Pradesh and Haryana circles.
An official said that ‘BSNL has been selling only 4G-enabled SIMs for the last 4-5 years. In such a situation, only those customers will have to remove the old SIM and get a new SIM to experience 4G service.’
BSNL is far behind Airtel and Jio
PM Modi has launched the roadmap for 6G network. 6G service is expected to start in India by 2030. BSNL is lagging far behind in this matter. The company is preparing to launch 5G service along with 4G. In January 2023, Union IT and Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnav had said that BSNL would start its 5G service by April 2024. At the same time, Airtel and Jio launched 5G service in India in October 2022.
BSNL was once the number one mobile operator
Former Prime Minister of India Atal Bihari Vajpayee launched BSNL mobile service from Lucknow on 19 October 2002. Within just 1-2 years of its launch, it had become India’s number one mobile service. Private operators had started mobile services months before the launch of BSNL, but the demand for BSNL’s ‘CellOne’ brand had increased a lot.
When BSNL services were started, private operators used to charge Rs 16 per minute for calls and Rs 8 per minute for incoming calls. BSNL made incoming calls free and the cost of outgoing calls came down to Rs 1.5. This period of 2002-2005 was the golden period of BSNL. Everyone wanted a BSNL SIM. For this, there used to be 3-7 km long queues.
Why did BSNL face such a situation?
- After its establishment in 2000, BSNL officials wanted to launch mobile services as soon as possible to challenge private operators but did not get the necessary government approval.
- The lack of quick government approval continued. Between 2006-12, while BSNL’s capacity increased marginally, private operators went far ahead.
- Due to network congestion and other problems, people left BSNL and turned to private companies.
- When the 3G spectrum auction took place in 2010, BSNL, being a government company, did not participate. Later, BSNL got spectrum at the same price at which private companies got it.
- BSNL also had to pay a huge amount for Broadband Wireless Access (BWA) spectrum based on WiMAX technology. This had a direct impact on the financial condition of BSNL.
- As the mobile revolution gained momentum in the country, there was a rapid decline in landline connections. BSNL had 3.8 crore landline customers in 2006-07, which decreased to 1.6 crore in 2014-15.
- Even when the 4G spectrum auction took place, BSNL was left out. Due to this delay, while private companies have rolled out 5G in the country, BSNL remained stuck on 4G.
There are currently more than 116 crore mobile subscribers in the country
According to the February 2024 data of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), which keeps track of telecom companies in India, 39,30,625 mobile subscribers increased across the country in February as compared to January 2024. While there were 116.07 crore mobile subscribers across the country in January, their number increased to 116.46 crore in February.
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