Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), the state-owned telecom operator, has seen a significant decline in its Wi-Fi customer base over the past few years. Reportedly, the telco lost a significant number of users in a short span of time.
According to a report by TelecomTalk, BSNL’s Wi-Fi subscriber count dropped from 10,92,650 in FY 2020 to just 4,06,600 by the financial year ending March 31, 2024. This marks a steep reduction in its customer base, reflecting a trend of decline that has been ongoing since 2020.
While BSNL has long been recognised as a dominant force in India’s fixed broadband industry, its market share has been eroded by aggressive competitors like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. These private telecom giants have heavily invested in expanding their optical fiber networks, allowing them to reach more homes and offer faster, more reliable services. As a result, BSNL has struggled to maintain its relevance in the increasingly competitive broadband space, despite offering similar services and pricing.
In the wireline broadband segment, BSNL has managed to maintain a market share of 16.61% as of September 2024, alongside MTNL’s 5.61% share. However, this is significantly lower compared to Jio’s dominant 40.61% share and Airtel’s 25.24%. The state-run operator is also facing difficulties in reversing the downward trend in its customer base, even as it continues to operate a PAN-India service network. BSNL’s wired broadband customer base increased from 3.71 million to 4.23 million in the year leading up to September 2024, but this has done little to slow down its overall decline in the face of private competition.
The competition has been particularly intense since 2016, the year when Jio entered the market and fundamentally altered the Indian telecom landscape with its disruptive pricing and rapid infrastructure rollout. Jio’s push into fiber-based broadband, combined with its broader ecosystem of services, has made it a major player in the market, leaving BSNL with limited room to grow. Despite these challenges, BSNL continues to offer competitive broadband plans, along with bundles that include OTT (over-the-top) benefits like those offered by private competitors.
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