Question : Poor Services of BSNL

(a) whether in the consumers are increasingly losing confidence the BSNL Services and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor;

(b) whether the consumer base of BSNL is continuously decreasing and it is incurring heavy losses and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the reaction of the Government thereto;

(c) the number of BSNL consumers across the country during each of the last three years, State/UTwise;

(d) whether the Government has conducted any review on the decreasing consumer base of the company and if so, the details and the outcome thereof; and

(e) whether the Government has received any complaints regarding poor network of BSNL BTS from district Narsinghpur-Hoshangabad of Madhya Pradesh and if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government thereon?

MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, EDUCATION AND
ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY
(SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a) No Sir. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has informed that the number of its wireless consumers have increased during the last three years and BSNL continues to be a dominant player in the wireline segment.

(b) to (c) State/UT-wise details of BSNL consumers across the country during each of the last three years is at Annexure.
BSNL has been incurring losses since 2009-10. Stiff competition in mobile segment resulting in lowering of tariffs, high employee cost and absence of 4G services (except at few places) in the data-centric telecom market are the main reasons for its losses.

Details of losses incurred by BSNL during the last three years are as under:
(in Rupees crore)
<pre>
Profit/(Loss) incurred by 2017-18 2018-19 2019-20
BSNL (7,993) (14,904) (15,500)

</pre>
The Government approved a revival plan for BSNL on 23.10.2019. The revival plan, inter-alia includes reduction in employee costs through a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for the employees of age 50 years and above, administrative allotment of spectrum for 4G services with funding through budgetary allocation, debt restructuring by raising of sovereign guarantee bonds, and monetisation of assets to generate resources for retiring Debt, CAPEX and other requirements.

(d)Does not arise.

(e) Though no specific data is available regarding complaints of poor network of BSNL BTS in the district Narsinghpur - Hoshangabad of Madhya Pradesh, a reference from Shri Uday Pratap Singh, Hon’ble Member of Parliament (MP) (Lok Sabha) regarding problems in the mobile network at Village-Lolari, Tehsil-Tendukheda, District-Narsinghpur was received in BSNL. Reply in the matter has been sent to Hon’ble MP.