BSNL strikes back, Achhay Din for telecom user!

A veteran journalist, now a leading youtuber, has even criticised the Prime Minister for not doing anything about the tariff hikes. Not very long ago the PM claimed that the data tariff is the cheapest in the world and tried to cash-in on the feature as one of the major achievements for the NDA Government

For long, BSNL has been in a state hibernation while the other telecom PSU was, more or less, dead. The advent of Reliance Infocomm in early 2000s with an aggressive monsoon Hungama scheme of handset at Rs 500 with CDMA connectivity dealt a deadly blow to the government-owned BSNL as well as MTNL.

BSNL with a pan-India network and MTNL serving New Delhi and Mumbai enjoyed monopoly for decades but their services were appalling due to the inefficiency and internal union rivalries that bred incompetency. Reliance Infomm, with the active support of the Vajpayee government came in at a time when the telephone subscriber was fed up with BSNL and MTNL. There were also allegations that the successive governments deliberately slowed down the technology upgradation of the two telecom giants to allow the private entities (read Reliance Infocomm) to grow with the speed of thought. But the fact remained that the government companies did not get any funding from the government which more or less left them to languish and even suffer humiliation.

One of course forgets the corruption that ruined the BNSL and MTNL and the way one had to bribe the linemen to keep the landlines working. And how can my generation not recall the time when we had a long wait for a phone connection and use influence of ministers and MPs. Genx or Genz finds difficult believe that their parents had to bribe for a phone connection.

But hopefully, all that will be part of history with the BSNL opening a new chapter in the era of immense competition. While Reliance Infocomm had shaken the market with a voice call tariff of less than the price of a post card, as mandated by the group founder late Dhirubhai Ambani, its competitors Airtel and Tata Tele had to bring down their tariffs. Reliance Infocomm sank under the weight of the fight between the Ambani bothers Mukesh and Anil and went bankrupt.

Mukesh Ambani launched Jio and disrupted the market so badly that the industry saw consolidation. The tariff war led to a huge debt burden among the private telecom companies – Airtel, Jio and Vodafone-idea – amounting to Rs 5.6 lakh crores. Jio amassed subscribers with killer data tariffs and free voice calls and the competition was forced to follow suit to halt subscriber porting to Jio. The impact can be gauged from the drastic shrinking in the sizes of the telecom companies’ customer service centres. And what is more, SIM cards are now available at every mobile phone or accessories shop. Perfect example of ease-of-business and KYC verification is also done instantaneously with Aadhar card scanning.

Jio took full advantage of the ease with cheap data and free voice plans which has bled the company. The competition which too was forced to cut tariffs also suffered a severe financial blow. The tariffs thus were raised 11 per cent -25 per cent sparking a bitter netizen attack on the Mukesh Ambani led company.

A veteran journalist, now a leading youtuber, has even criticised the Prime Minister for not doing anything about the tariff hikes. Not very long ago the PM claimed that the data tariff is the cheapest in the world and tried to cash-in on the feature as one of the major achievements for the NDA Government.

While private telecom operators have earned tremendous goodwill over the last two decades, the PSUs lost business as well as image. It may not take long for BSNL to rejuvenate itself like the proverbial phoenix, but what important is to improve service to match Jio-Airtel-Vi-idea trio.

If the BSNL is apparently taking an aggressive stand to expand and even launch 5G next year, it has to literally whip the rank and file which has been habituated to lethargy all these years. With ‘zero budget’ policy of the governments for decades, there has been no fresh recruitment and, whatever staff was left after VRS had not much work. So, getting employees to keep the show running and agents to aggressively sell SIM cards are the twin challenges before the management.

Most importantly, there should be no government, ministerial or MP level interference with the working of BSNL. It should get totally free hand with accountability.

Meanwhile, there telecom world is excited with the reports if a Rs 15,000 crore deal between BSNL and Tata Consultancy for executing 4G network across 1,000 villages. This fund infusion provides the much-required oxygen to BSNL. The government should on its part infuse more funds into BSNL or at least give it a free hand to raise from the market. It has already announced Rs 3.2 lakh crore revival packages in 2019, releasing funds in three tranches. The BSNL will not be wrong to expect few more sops in the Budget 24.

For long, the government has been toying with the idea of BSNL-MTNL merger. But now, there is a new plan to just handing over the services in Mumbai and Delhi to BSNL with effecting any merger. This will give additional access to the BSNL and help tap disgruntled Jio and other subscribers.

All in all, BSNL is in for staging a comeback and let us hope the telecom consumer will see Achay Din.

(The columnist is a Mumbai-based author and independent media veteran, running websites and a youtube channel known for his thought-provoking messaging.)