BSNL... a collapsing Empire

BSNL, a state-owned public sector company, which was a huge empire till about 10 years ago, is now unable to compete with companies like Airtel and Jio which are actively pursuing 5G services. In India, BSNL was once a competitor to telecom companies including Airtel. After the arrival of Jio 4G, most of the customers jumped to Jio.Gradually BSNL subscribers switched to other private networks. Also, more than 600 BSNL employees and officers resigned due to reasons such as retrenchment and voluntary retirement. Thus, the respective seats remain vacant.

Further, a plan to rent vacant buildings in BSNL offices was also brought up and started to rent out from 2020. The government office building itself was rented out.Vacancy details are collected in BSNL buildings across the country and published officially on BSNL website regarding places available for rent. It was informed that setting up of ATM center, staff accommodation, central state government offices, banks etc., can get BSNL office space on rent.

A BSNL building is rented out to government agencies in Tamil Nadu as well.So BSNL, a huge empire, is slowly collapsing. Who is responsible for this? If the Union Government had thought, would this situation have come to this? Now they have left BSNL in the abyss by auctioning 5G for tens of billions.

Even 4G is not complete in BSNL service till date. How is BSNL going to handle 5G service in this situation? Although there are various reasons for BSNL's losses,it is no exaggeration to say that the most important reason is that BSNL is not even under the hind sight of the Union Government.

Its employees are demanding that the Union government should do something to bring BSNL into line. What will Union Govt Department of Telecommunication do? Is this a ploy to slowly privatize the BSNL service little by little?