Lok Sabha Question No. 3566 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-03-17
Subject: Quality of Communication Services of MTNL/BSNL
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Pushpendra Singh Chandel, Mala Rajya Laxmi Shah

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3566 TO BE ANSWERED ON 17 TH  MARCH, 2021

## QUALITY OF COMMUNICATION SERVICES OF MTNL/BSNL

## †3566. SHRI KUNWAR PUSHPENDRA SINGH CHANDEL: SHRIMATI MALA RAJYA LAXMI SHAH:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has formulated any scheme to provide state-of-art communication services of BSNL/MTNL including 5G services, on the lines of private telecom service providers to customers and if so, the details thereof;
- (b) the  details  of  the  efforts  and  expenditure  made  by  the  Government  for  technical  and institutional upgradation of BSNL/MTNL during the last five years;
- (c) the number of new customers of BSNL/MTNL during each of the last three years, State/UTwise along with the number of customers who have surrendered services of BSNL/MTNL during the same period, State/UT-wise including the district of Bundelkhand; and
- (d) the measures taken/being taken by the Government to increase the number of consumers of BSNL/MTNL?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS, EDUCATION AND ELECTRONICS & INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY (SHRI SANJAY DHOTRE)

(a)& (b) The  Government  approved  the  revival  plan  for  Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) on 23.10.2019, which inter-alia includes measures to reduce the Staff cost through a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for employees of age 50 years and above, administrative allotment of Spectrum for providing 4G services with funding through  budgetary  allocation,  monetisation  of  Land/Building  and  Tower/Fibre  Assets  to  generate resources  to  retire  debt,  meet  CAPEX  and  other  requirements,  debt  restructuring  by  raising  of Sovereign Guarantee Bonds and in-principle approval for merger of BSNL and MTNL.

The Government has made fund allocation of Rs. 24,084 Crores for spectrum for 4G services in FY 2021-22. BSNL has invited Expression of Interest ( EoI) on 01.01.2021 for prior registration/Proof of Concept (PoC) from Indian Companies interested in participating in BSNL's upcoming 4G tender.

5G mobile services are yet to be launched in India.

(c) State/UT-wise details of new additions and surrender of Mobile and Landline customers of BSNL/MTNL  is  at Annexure-I & Annexure-II respectively.  Number  of  connections  added /surrendered in last 3 years in Bundelkhand region are as under:

| Year                   | Mobile   | Mobile      | Landline   | Landline   |
|------------------------|----------|-------------|------------|------------|
|                        | Addition | Surrender # | Addition   | Surrender  |
| 2018-19                | 244257   | N/A         | 5355       | 6383       |
| 2019-20                | 212715   | N/A         | 3118       | 8984       |
| 2020-21 (upto Jan '21) | 188971   | N/A         | 3053       | 22822      |

# BSNL has informed that it is not possible to find out exact number of mobile customers who have surrendered mobile services as customers use to  discontinue mobile services on  their own without surrendering the SIM.

(d)       BSNL has informed that it is continuously adding mobile subscribers and its subscribers are increasing  regularly  over  last  five  years.  BSNL  and  MTNL  continue  to  be  dominant  player  in  the wireline segment.

With  the  commencement  of  4G  services  on  a  large  scale,  BSNL  expects  to  increase  number  of customers further.

Annexure  to  reply  to  part-(c)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.3566  for  answer  on 17.03.2021.

Details of mobile customers added/surrendered during last three years

| Name of Circle   | 2018-19*   | 2018-19*    | 2019-20   | 2019-20     | 2020-21 (Up to February 2021)   | 2020-21 (Up to February 2021)   |
|------------------|------------|-------------|-----------|-------------|---------------------------------|---------------------------------|
|                  | Addition   | Surrender # | Addition  | Surrender # | Addition                        | Surrender #                     |
| BSNL             |            |             |           |             |                                 |                                 |
| A&Nislands       | 70183      | N/A         | 45696     | N/A         | 45306                           | N/A                             |
| Assam            | 735813     |             | 323524    |             | 216123                          |                                 |
| Bihar            | 1017342    |             | 1047520   |             | 814873                          |                                 |
| Jharkhand        | 462916     |             | 301986    |             | 169231                          |                                 |
| Kolkata          | 530284     |             | 638881    |             | 683793                          |                                 |
| North East I     | 227005     |             | 118487    |             | 59780                           |                                 |
| North East II    | 118244     |             | 95021     |             | 50281                           |                                 |
| Odisha           | 1469390    |             | 1064884   |             | 728337                          |                                 |
| West Bengal      | 480733     |             | 565508    |             | 321644                          |                                 |
| Punjab           | 932637     |             | 875438    |             | 730779                          |                                 |
| Haryana          | 986641     |             | 1047424   |             | 819015                          |                                 |
| Himachal Pradesh | 343541     |             | 238548    |             | 123774                          |                                 |
| Rajasthan        | 1278734    |             | 1376361   |             | 1015479                         |                                 |
| J& K             | 251078     |             | 286427    |             | 153910                          |                                 |
| UP (West)        | 1165642    |             | 1057706   |             | 1077571                         |                                 |
| UP (East)        | 1841409    |             | 1630754   |             | 1121007                         |                                 |
| Uttarakhand      | 222951     |             | 218169    |             | 137161                          |                                 |
| Andhra Pradesh   | 1411253    |             | 1161435   |             | 543616                          |                                 |
| Telangana        |            |             | 333621    |             | 304472                          |                                 |
| Chennai          | 274239     |             | 458908    |             | 389017                          |                                 |
| Karnataka        | 1086233    |             | 759520    |             | 377751                          |                                 |
| Kerala           | 1275802    |             | 1157965   |             | 594738                          |                                 |
| Tamil Nadu       | 1912822    |             | 1224759   |             | 561206                          |                                 |
| Gujarat          | 1373425    |             | 1116275   |             | 637040                          |                                 |
| Maharashtra      | 1042756    |             | 1289627   |             | 915381                          |                                 |
| Madhya Pradesh   | 809396     |             | 649614    |             | 383159                          |                                 |
| Chhattisgarh     | 344107     |             | 344043    |             | 231648                          |                                 |
| MTNL             |            |             |           |             |                                 |                                 |
| Delhi            | 15265      | 81853       | 9641      | 41201       | 5509                            | 20413                           |
| Mumbai           | 38979      | 76228       | 26698     | 88174       | 5063                            | 41025                           |

Annexure  to  reply  to  part-(c)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.3566  for  answer  on 17.03.2021.

## Details of Landline customers added/surrendered during last three years

| Name of Circle       | 2018-19   | 2018-19   | 2019-20   | 2019-20   | 2020-21 (Up to January 2021)   | 2020-21 (Up to January 2021)   |
|----------------------|-----------|-----------|-----------|-----------|--------------------------------|--------------------------------|
| Name of Circle       | Addition  | Surrender | Addition  | Surrender | Addition                       | Surrender                      |
| BSNL                 | BSNL      | BSNL      | BSNL      | BSNL      | BSNL                           | BSNL                           |
| Andaman & Nicobar    | 3045      | 2479      | 1895      | 2424      | 2590                           | 2685                           |
| Assam                | 8005      | 31544     | 6083      | 24095     | 2722                           | 16069                          |
| Bihar                | 14865     | 31323     | 9664      | 34157     | 5785                           | 18464                          |
| Jharkhand            | 7389      | 29641     | 4969      | 24671     | 3245                           | 12617                          |
| Kolkata              | 13422     | 99788     | 8014      | 94488     | 3076                           | 90266                          |
| North East I         | 5331      | 10175     | 4061      | 11808     | 2209                           | 7972                           |
| North East II        | 3048      | 8700      | 1979      | 8387      | 1825                           | 16764                          |
| Odisha               | 29194     | 67160     | 14752     | 51959     | 6994                           | 43121                          |
| West Bengal          | 9056      | 64649     | 6058      | 65268     | 3978                           | 29166                          |
| Punjab               | 42459     | 115772    | 24991     | 106652    | 18839                          | 112892                         |
| Haryana              | 32630     | 66161     | 24344     | 58846     | 14370                          | 56667                          |
| Himachal Pradesh     | 13090     | 23736     | 8328      | 23629     | 6128                           | 22910                          |
| Rajasthan            | 43408     | 109180    | 26249     | 106406    | 15280                          | 97066                          |
| Jammu &Kashmir       | 12609     | 25738     | 36066     | 18030     | 7037                           | 37635                          |
| Uttar Pradesh (West) | 18912     | 51383     | 10752     | 47730     | 8106                           | 45477                          |
| Uttar Pradesh (East) | 21851     | 35013     | 14285     | 85155     | 10712                          | 118425                         |
| Uttarakhand          | 10628     | 21684     | 5614      | 25224     | 4588                           | 26187                          |
| Andhra Pradesh       | 57215     | 122626    | 29760     | 153667    | 20691                          | 114019                         |
| Telangana            | 28425     | 70517     | 15242     | 97822     | 7456                           | 78394                          |
| Chennai              | 17494     | 66993     | 10393     | 81110     | 6123                           | 86281                          |
| Karnataka            | 41282     | 144421    | 25096     | 202450    | 15091                          | 183991                         |
| Kerala               | 66136     | 150394    | 39095     | 376822    | 40244                          | 389785                         |
| Tamil Nadu           | 66417     | 133993    | 34523     | 220295    | 26474                          | 214710                         |
| Gujarat              | 59480     | 100573    | 34931     | 400543    | 12380                          | 152108                         |
| Maharashtra          | 58576     | 232779    | 37026     | 243044    | 20409                          | 141712                         |
| Madhya Pradesh       | 25061     | 35386     | 12104     | 297276    | 7532                           | 37992                          |
| Chhattisgarh         | 10200     | 14986     | 5321      | 14020     | 3610                           | 61692                          |
| MTNL                 | MTNL      | MTNL      | MTNL      | MTNL      | MTNL                           | MTNL                           |
| Delhi                | 20477     | 63537     | 10238     | 49945     | 7209                           | 78169                          |
| Mumbai               | 37992     | 83236     | 23653     | 86239     | 4619                           | 103424                         |

*****