Why BSNL wasn’t allowed to do a JIO
The systematic destruction of BSNL, from UPA to NDA
A day as remarkable as this rarely comes. When crores of workers of the country are on strike, raising a few just demands to ensure their survival, the Prime Minister of the country has given out a clear message by becoming the brand-ambassador, the model and the bunny of Reliance Jio. He has even granted an exclusive interview to Reliance’s own CNN-IBN. The message is this — fuck the labour laws, fuck the minimum wages and above all, fuck the public sector.
Amid all this celebratory coverage of Reliance #Jio, one question that was sorely missing was this — Why was the state-owned BSNL not given clearance to launch their 4G services before the private players? Would it hurt the BSNL to have the ‘unfair’ advantage that currently Reliance Jio and the other private players enjoy? This has been a long-running saga. Before BJP, the UPA had also done the same thing, wilfully destroying the BSNL from within to the advantage of the private players.
The history starts from the launch of mobile phone services in India. The public sector telecom company (pre-BSNL days. BSNL was incorporated in 2000) was not one of the eight companies licensed to provide cellular services in India in 1995, even though it was the only player in landline telephony till then. BSNL launched its mobile services in 2001, by which time the private players had captured the market. But, it made up for the delay in quick time and by 2005, it had a market share of 47 percent.
A decade later, in 2015, its market share in mobile telephony had gone down to 11 percent. In 2016, it has further gone down to 8 percent. Strangely, this downfall has happened in the same decade when there has been an explosion in mobile telephone coverage in the country. To find the reason for this, one has to go back to 2006, when the BSNL was preparing to step up its network and called for a tender for new equipment for an additional 45 million lines. However, the then telecom minister, the infamous A.Raja, torpedoed this plan and after protests from the employees’ unions, agreed to clear orders for 50 percent of what was earlier planned. This reduced the BSNL’s capacity to add new customers. They added a mere 30 million in the next four years, compared to 90 million by airtel in the same year.
A lesser known fact about BSNL is that it is the only company which has invested consistently in infrastructure in the rural areas. Consequently, all of the private companies depend on BSNL towers to carry their service to these areas. To compensate for this ‘Service’, which it was forced to do, the BSNL used to get an Access Deficit Charge. Even this amount has been drastically cut down in recent years. The private companies talking about taking services to the rural Indians is mere eyewash. They have been just piggybacking on the hard work done by BSNL in most of these areas. Even when the company was providing this service, its own capacity was systematically eroded.
The BSNL has been over the last few years consistently making losses due to this very reason. Suddenly this year, we heard this story of how the Modi Government had turned around its fortunes to make it a profit making company, from Rs.8000 crore losses in 2014 to Rs.672 crores profit in 2015. No explanation was given on how this mysterious turn around happened.
Recently, one of the BSNL employees told me how this magic happened. Till last year, the profits/losses were announced after taking into account the “Asset depreciation”, which comes to around Rs.7000–8000 crores (losses). This year, they decided to announce just the operating costs, without mentioning this depreciation. So, effectively nothing much has changed in the BSNL, but the Government managed to make a song and dance about a turn-around, when nothing of that sort has happened.
But, the Kerala circle of the BSNL has been the only one which has been consistently making profits even as at the national level, the losses have mounted. This year too hasn’t been different. The Kerala BSNL Employees Union has conducted more strikes than other states, but most of these strikes have been against steps ordered by the management aimed at eroding the company. So, there is another lesson for those who contemptuously look down upon striking workers. The service delivery is still poor at times, with frequent call drops and delay in repairs due to shortage of spares, but many customers have still stuck on to support the public sector company.
The BSNL’s 4G services will be rolled out only next year, just like how its 3G services came much after the private companies have all taken hold. We can only hope that there will be something of the market left for it to mark at least a feeble presence.
For a decade from 2003 to 2013, I had used BSNL broadband, during my stay in Thiruvananthapuram, Bangalore, Chennai and Kozhikode. When I came back to Thiruvananthapuram in 2013, I again applied for a connection, as I usually do when I shift to a new place. But, this time, they said they were unable to give new connection as the ports were all full in my area and they needed new equipment stock to arrive to get a new connection from some other area. I waited for four months, frequently disturbing them. But, the connection never came, forcing me to buy an MTS dongle. My only connection now with BSNL is a sim which I use sparingly.
