BSNL won’t raise consumer tariffs, will focus on improving services: CMD Robert Ravi

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd, India's fourth-largest telecom company, will not increase tariffs, chairman and managing director Robert Ravi said, adding that it will focus on improving the quality of its services to retain the customers gained from rivals over the past quarter.

"I can say for certain that BSNL will not be raising tariffs in the near future," Ravi said on the sidelines of the launch of the company’s new logo and a slew of services on Tuesday.

BSNL was the only telco that did not raise tariffs in June when larger rivals Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea increased them by 10-21%. Jio and Airtel also started charging for 5G services on unlimited usage plans, beginning the trend of monetisation of 5G in India.

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State-owned BSNL gained 2.9 million mobile phone users in July while others lost subscribers, according to the telecom regulator's data issued last month. The company had 88.5 million mobile phone users, or about 7.5% of the nation’s total.

The new services - seven in all - were launched by communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia. BSNL has come up with its own 4G telecom stack, which can be migrated to 5G, Scindia said, terming it a huge accomplishment for India.

"Our hope is that BSNL will always be at the forefront of tech innovation," he said.

The minister said BSNL will have 100,000 4G sites by the middle of next year and graduate some sites to 5G by then. The telco will begin with 4G and go on to a 4G saturation project along with the Bharat Net rollout to cater to the entire country. 

Blocking spam

"Spam protection, automated SIM kiosks and direct-to-device services are intended to bring customers to BSNL," said Neeraj Mittal, secretary of the department of telecommunications.

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The spam-blocking solutions automatically filter-out phishing attempts and malicious SMS and aims to create a safer communication environment for the telco's users. Automated SIM kiosks allow users to purchase, upgrade, port or replace SIMs on 24X7 basis, leveraging UPI or QR enabled payments with seamless KYC integration and multi-lingual access.

India's first direct-to-device connectivity solution converges satellite and terrestrial mobile networks to deliver "reliable connectivity," it said in a release, adding the technology is particularly useful in emergency situations and isolated regions and can enable UPI payments in such areas.

BSNL also introduced low latency 5G connectivity for mining operations in partnership with Centre for Development of Advanced Computing, leveraging Made in India equipment and BSNL's technological expertise.

It will begin offering the private 5G service to 50 mines, followed by about 16 other sectors across government departments such as roads and transport, Ravi added. 

The telco will also offer intranet TV services with over 500 live channels and pay TV options, which will be provided to all FTTH (fibre broadband to home) subscribers free of charge. The data used for TV streaming will not count against users’ allowance.

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"BSNL has been a flagship enterprise of the government, a flagship enterprise that represents aspirations, dreams and expectations of every single citizen of our country," Scindia said unveiling the new services and new logo of BSNL.

BSNL has been serving the interest of people achieving various milestones across the years, Scindia said, exuding confidence that as the “landscape has become competitive and consolidated," BSNL "will rise to new challenges."