Scindia meets 32 BSNL CGMs, outlines plan to boost revenue
Joined by minister of state Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar and senior department of telecommunications (DoT) officials, Scindia described BSNL's Annual Strategic Review & Planning Meet 2025-26 as the first such 'performance review and target-setting exercise' of its scale.
Midway into the review, Scindia interacted with the media and said, 'We've already reviewed 25 of 32 circles in detail, examining what has ailed us in the past, where we stand today in customer base and ARPU (average revenue per user), and the steps to increase topline growth.' He emphasised that each CGM should function as the 'CEO of their circle,' driving accountability and local leadership.
Scindia highlighted BSNL's return to net profit in FY24-25 after 18 years, with ₹260 crore in Q3 and ₹280 crore in Q4. Its operating Ebitda margin doubled to nearly ₹5,100 crore, while capex hit ₹25,000 crore, he added.
Circles such as Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Haryana, and Chhattisgarh were singled out for their strong performance and will present case studies in the next quarterly review. The meeting also reviewed BSNL's 'customer-first' push, including its 4G rollout, spam-free network initiative, Wi-Fi roaming service, infotainment platforms for FTTH and mobile users, and enterprise offerings such as VPN and leased lines.
Scindia announced that monthly reviews will be conducted by MoS Sekhar, with quarterly reviews chaired by him. 'Through steering BSNL, we are hoping to provide new telecom opportunities to every single citizen of our country and take forward the aspiration and dream of our Prime Minister in terms of making us a robust player in the telecom and digitalisation story of India,' he said in the interaction with the media.
The telco added nearly 4.5 million customers over the past year, said Scindia, calling the achievement a 'dream come true'.
Despite the turnaround, BSNL continues to operate in a market dominated by private players. According to monthly data uploaded by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), private service providers controlled 92.14% of India's wireless (mobile) subscriber base, while BSNL and MTNL together held 7.86%, as of May 31.
BSNL also saw a decline of 135,000 mobile subscribers and 46,054 wireline subscribers in May. In machine-to-machine (M2M) cellular connections, where Airtel leads with a 54.31% share, BSNL accounted for just 4.63%.
However, BSNL remains the third-largest fixed wired broadband provider with 4.32 million subscribers, behind Reliance Jio (13.51 million) and Airtel (9.26 million). Its total wired broadband base of 29.99 million places it fourth overall in the fixed-line segment.
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