BSNL employees seek 4G network sharing with VI to curb customer exodus

New Delhi: Employees of state-run telecom Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) have urged Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw to allow the PSU to utilise the 4G network of Vodafone Idea (VI) temporarily to curb the exodus of customers. In a letter addressed to the minister, the BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU) alarmed the government about the number of customers leaving BSNL due to the non-availability of 4G/5G services, stating that 2.3 million customers left BSNL in March 2024 alone. Citing a media report, the BSNLEU said that the state-run telco lost about 18 million subscribers in FY2023-24.

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“… customers have started leaving BSNL massively, due to the non-availability of 4G / 5G services. This has already been brought to your kind notice through our earlier letters cited under reference. Reliance Jio and Airtel, which have already rolled out their 5G service throughout the country, are getting benefitted through the massive customer exodus taking place in BSNL… This is really alarming and it is needless for us to state that, BSNL is slipping into an irretrievable crisis,” said John Verghese, general secretary of BSNLEU.

“To contain the massive exodus of customers from BSNL, our Union had already suggested that BSNL may be facilitated to utilise the network of Vodafone Idea temporarily, for providing its 4G service. Being the biggest shareholder of Vodafone Idea, we hope that the Government of India can very well ensure that this sharing of network is made possible,” said Verghese in the letter, a copy of which was accessed by PSU Watch.

‘TCS-led consortium taking ‘abnormally long’ in deploying BSNL 4G network’

In the letter, the BSNLEU said that the TCS-led consortium, which has won the Rs 19,000-crore contract in 2023 for deploying BSNL’s 4G/5G network, is taking ‘abnormally long in deploying BSNL’s 4G network. ITI Limited, homegrown telecom gear maker Tejas Networks and the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) are part of the consortium that has won the order. “It is understood that TCS has not even completed the field trial of its 4G equipments. It clearly seems that the TCS is faced with serious technical problems in the commissioning and operationalising of BSNL’s 4G networks,” said the union.

Tejas Networks expects to conclude supplying 4G/5G network equipment to BSNL in the current fiscal, said the company’s management during a post-earnings call recently. While the Tata group’s IT services arm is the system integrator, Tejas is supplying 4G/5G network equipment and C-DoT is supplying its network core solutions under the deal struck with BSNL.

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