BSNL facing extinction threat

GUWAHATI, May 20: It may not be too far away to see a defunct BSNL office as contrary to the paramount growth of the private telecom players across the nation, this state-owned telecom company is facing an extinction threat from the ground. At a time when the geographical coverage of cellular networks has rapidly been expanding from urban to the remotest village and from elite to the laymen’s hand, anyone would commonly anticipate that the users are also increasing, accessing mobile networks irrespective of public and private service providers. Yes, the speculation is right. However, the trend of growing of the network user is so partial and discouraging that it provokes many to take a dig of the mystery.

According to a report, over the last five years, BSNL, the lone public player in this trade, has been so decreasing that it is somehow struggling to resist the paramount wave of the private players like Reliance and Airtel. During the period from 2013-14 to 2017-18, the BSNL landline users have decreased from 53,536 to 38,000. Moreover, during the same period, the internet users have decreased from 16,378 to 10,000. Hence, there were altogether a decrease of 15,536 of landline users and 6,378 of internet users. What is more worrying is the fact that even the government establishments are gradually abandoning the BSNL networks, be it landline or internet connection.

Talking to The Sentinel, an old-time BSNL user, who is also on the verge of discarding his connection, criticized primarily the call drop and slow network which he has been experiencing since long. On condition of anonymity, numbers of former BSNL users said that due to bad network connectivity, they have ported their connection to private service providers, either to Airtel and Reliance.

Now the question remains that when the Indian private telecom giants are expanding their operations and services beyond the national boundary, why is the lone public service provider not sustaining within the nation? It instigates many to inquire the irony as to how Reliance is mounting to its highest graph with its widespread Jio plan, contrary to the declining of the BSNL users. How the lone public sector telecom industry can be so cornered is a million dollar question now.