Lok Sabha Question No. 419 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-02-03
Subject: Poor Services of BSNL
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Uday Pratap Singh

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK  SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 419 TO BE ANSWERED ON 3 RD  FEBRUARY, 2021

## POOR SERVICES OF BSNL

## †419. SHRI UDAY PRATAP SINGH:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  in  the  consumers  are  increasingly  losing  confidence  the  BSNL  Services  and  if  so,  the details thereof and the reasons therefor;
- (b) whether the consumer base of BSNL is continuously decreasing and it is incurring heavy losses and if so, the details thereof and the reasons therefor along with the reaction of the Government thereto;
- (c) the  number  of  BSNL  consumers  across  the  country  during  each  of  the  last  three  years, State/UTwise;
- (d) whether  the  Government  has  conducted  any  review  on  the  decreasing  consumer  base  of  the company and if so, the details and the outcome thereof; and
- (e) whether the Government has received any complaints regarding poor network of BSNL BTS from district Narsinghpur-Hoshangabad of Madhya Pradesh and if so, the details thereof and the action taken by the Government thereon?

## ANSWER

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

- (a) No  Sir.  Bharat  Sanchar  Nigam  Limited  (BSNL)  has  informed  that  the  number  of  its  wireless consumers have increased during the last three years and BSNL continues to be a dominant player in the wireline segment.
- (b) to (c) State/UT-wise details of BSNL consumers across the country during each of the last three years is at Annexure.

BSNL has been incurring losses since 2009-10. Stiff competition in mobile segment resulting in lowering of tariffs, high employee cost and absence of 4G services (except at few places) in the data-centric telecom market are the main reasons for its losses.

Details of losses incurred by BSNL during the last three years are as under:

|                           |         |          | (in Rupees crore)   |
|---------------------------|---------|----------|---------------------|
| Profit/(Loss) incurred by | 2017-18 | 2018-19  | 2019-20             |
| BSNL                      | (7,993) | (14,904) | (15,500)            |

The Government approved a revival plan for BSNL on 23.10.2019.  The revival plan, inter-alia includes reduction in employee costs through a Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) for the employees of age  50  years  and  above,  administrative  allotment  of  spectrum  for  4G  services  with  funding  through budgetary  allocation,  debt  restructuring  by  raising  of  sovereign  guarantee  bonds,  and  monetisation  of assets to generate resources for retiring Debt, CAPEX and other requirements.

(d)Does not arise.

- (e)  Though no specific data is available regarding complaints of poor network of BSNL BTS in the district Narsinghpur  -  Hoshangabad  of  Madhya  Pradesh,  a  reference  from  Shri  Uday  Pratap  Singh,  Hon'ble Member of  Parliament  (MP)  (Lok  Sabha)  regarding  problems  in  the  mobile  network  at  Village-Lolari, Tehsil-Tendukheda, District-Narsinghpur  was  received  in  BSNL.    Reply  in  the  matter  has  been  sent  to Hon'ble MP.

Annexure

Annexure  to  reply  to  part-(a)  to  (c)  of  Lok  Sabha  Unstarred  Question  No.419  for  answer  on 03.02.2021.

| State/UT Name                      | Number of wireless subscribers as on   | Number of wireless subscribers as on   | Number of wireless subscribers as on   | Number of wireless subscribers as on   |
|------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|----------------------------------------|
|                                    | 31.03.2018                             | 31.03.2019                             | 31.03.2020                             | 30.09.2020                             |
| Andhra Pradesh                     | 67,99,691                              | 68,80,040                              | 67,84,672                              | 67,33,052                              |
| Arunachal Pradesh                  | 3,43,828                               | 2,81,460                               | 2,31,753                               | 1,93,647                               |
| Assam                              | 19,64,401                              | 25,60,859                              | 27,90,779                              | 28,88,111                              |
| Bihar                              | 31,26,849                              | 32,38,116                              | 40,98,777                              | 43,04,764                              |
| Chhattisgarh                       | 20,14,065                              | 20,86,068                              | 21,82,121                              | 21,60,710                              |
| Goa                                | 1,86,264                               | 1,86,872                               | 1,77,239                               | 1,70,958                               |
| Gujarat                            | 57,83,303                              | 59,38,961                              | 60,88,212                              | 60,85,164                              |
| Haryana                            | 44,76,401                              | 49,28,753                              | 50,03,797                              | 50,73,981                              |
| Himachal Pradesh                   | 25,71,438                              | 28,22,517                              | 29,91,601                              | 29,88,503                              |
| Jharkhand                          | 13,03,175                              | 13,28,221                              | 15,29,549                              | 15,70,455                              |
| Karnataka                          | 72,18,971                              | 71,97,784                              | 73,18,035                              | 72,56,391                              |
| Kerala                             | 1,04,50,626                            | 1,08,22,426                            | 1,08,65,227                            | 1,08,75,673                            |
| Madhya Pradesh                     | 40,05,529                              | 40,95,262                              | 41,86,829                              | 41,42,605                              |
| Maharashtra                        | 69,24,057                              | 70,17,225                              | 68,74,289                              | 69,12,764                              |
| Manipur                            | 2,07,019                               | 1,44,912                               | 1,19,092                               | 99,509                                 |
| Meghalaya                          | 2,55,554                               | 3,30,666                               | 3,17,123                               | 3,21,149                               |
| Mizoram                            | 2,15,994                               | 2,58,665                               | 2,23,825                               | 2,33,861                               |
| Nagaland                           | 1,61,836                               | 1,32,317                               | 1,03,373                               | 86,377                                 |
| Odisha                             | 54,19,714                              | 57,47,860                              | 62,27,956                              | 63,57,676                              |
| Punjab                             | 52,14,350                              | 53,23,075                              | 56,00,420                              | 56,66,601                              |
| Rajasthan                          | 55,38,975                              | 59,07,492                              | 62,71,217                              | 63,56,489                              |
| Sikkim                             | 40,086                                 | 41,373                                 | 62,754                                 | 65,513                                 |
| Tamil Nadu                         | 1,08,88,449                            | 1,18,21,433                            | 1,24,53,449                            | 1,08,23,645                            |
| Telangana                          | 33,27,118                              | 32,91,557                              | 30,95,804                              | 30,48,442                              |
| Tripura                            | 4,08,055                               | 4,53,924                               | 4,27,337                               | 4,33,063                               |
| Uttar Pradesh                      | 1,62,69,305                            | 1,63,01,904                            | 1,61,26,734                            | 1,61,58,101                            |
| Uttarakhand                        | 13,59,563                              | 14,85,056                              | 15,31,499                              | 15,35,811                              |
| West Bengal                        | 28,39,786                              | 30,90,899                              | 41,79,504                              | 45,02,970                              |
| Union Territories                  | Union Territories                      | Union Territories                      | Union Territories                      | Union Territories                      |
| Andaman &Nicobar Islands           | 3,17,487                               | 2,59,288                               | 2,27,695                               | 2,09,372                               |
| Chandigarh                         | 1,32,173                               | 1,29,389                               | 1,78,940                               | 1,90,061                               |
| Dadar &Nagar Haveli and Daman &Diu | 26,943                                 | 19,825                                 | 23,078                                 | 24,328                                 |
| Delhi                              | -                                      | -                                      | -                                      |                                        |
| Jammu &Kashmir                     | 15,93,836                              | 12,42,060                              | 12,57,282                              | 9,98,438                               |
| Ladakh                             | -                                      | -                                      | -                                      | 2,56,510                               |
| Lakshadweep                        | 71,289                                 | 68,192                                 | 79,066                                 | 76,123                                 |
| Puducherry                         | 2,23,353                               | 3,08,114                               | 2,43,095                               | 1,89,840                               |
| Total                              | 11,16 ,79,483                          | 11,57,42,565                           | 11,98,72,123                           | 11,89,90,657                           |

## Wireline subscribers of M/s BSNL State/UT-wise as on

| State                             | 31.03.2018        | 31.03.2019        | 31.03.2020        | 30.09.2020        |
|-----------------------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|-------------------|
| Andhra Pradesh                    | 608909            | 549575            | 425528            | 381506            |
| Arunachal Pradesh                 | 23944             | 23881             | 23026             | 20984             |
| Assam                             | 134580            | 111518            | 95015             | 88179             |
| Bihar                             | 136697            | 110606            | 86643             | 81291             |
| Chhattisgarh                      | 127420            | 122634            | 114261            | 59830             |
| Goa                               | 107567            | 96580             | 81710             | 75640             |
| Gujarat                           | 1040860           | 999719            | 637948            | 538718            |
| Haryana                           | 239944            | 209003            | 175363            | 151169            |
| Himachal Pradesh                  | 120440            | 110078            | 94579             | 85059             |
| Jammu &Kashmir                    | 115678            | 102447            | 120470            |                   |
| Jharkhand                         | 122258            | 104909            | 59679             | 55160             |
| Karnataka                         | 1104785           | 1021570           | 863720            | 816343            |
| Kerala                            | 1862708           | 1779169           | 1441280           | 1275022           |
| Madhya Pradesh                    | 538285            | 527960            | 244156            | 228365            |
| Maharashtra incl. Mumbai          | 1150698           | 987482            | 796102            | 758881            |
| Manipur                           | 20757             | 20379             | 17930             | 8907              |
| Meghalaya                         | 18330             | 17631             | 14927             | 13927             |
| Mizoram                           | 15097             | 13700             | 11254             | 10102             |
| Nagaland                          | 11787             | 7775              | 5873              | 5456              |
| Odisha                            | 265031            | 223052            | 185731            | 162307            |
| Punjab                            | 395839            | 330996            | 259499            | 219532            |
| Rajasthan                         | 504786            | 439056            | 356233            | 299894            |
| Sikkim                            | 6694              | 6407              | 5139              | 5060              |
| Tamil Nadu incl. Chennai          | 1493481           | 1380516           | 1129003           | 1011655           |
| Telangana                         | 445415            | 410769            | 328580            | 290098            |
| Tripura                           | 22009             | 20515             | 17944             | 16683             |
| Uttar Pradesh (UPE+UPW)           | 568962            | 530540            | 414600            | 297740            |
| Uttarakhand                       | 103452            | 92747             | 73173             | 58906             |
| West Bengal incl. Kolkata         | 810868            | 678505            | 530140            | 513338            |
| Union Territories                 | Union Territories | Union Territories | Union Territories | Union Territories |
| Andaman &Nicobar Islands          | 16529             | 17095             | 16570             | 16855             |
| Chandigarh                        | 71649             | 63363             | 54735             | 48975             |
| Dadar &Nagar Haveli               | 3990              | 4076              | 2227              |                   |
| Daman &Diu                        | 5666              | 5628              | 3551              | 4791              |
| Delhi                             | 0                 | 0                 |                   | 0                 |
| Lakshadweep                       | 6229              | 4401              | 4312              | 4303              |
| Puducherry                        | 46047             | 43397             | 36202             | 33055             |
| Jammu &Kashmir (including Ladakh) |                   |                   |                   | 102635            |
| TOTAL                             | 122,67,391        | 111,67,679        | 87,27,103         | 77,40,366         |

| Telecom Service Area   | 30.09.2020   | 31.03.2020   | 31.03.2019   | 31.03.2018   |
|------------------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|--------------|
| Andhra Pradesh         | 3355151      | 3445908      | 2959512      | 3095376      |
| Assam                  | 350009       | 340472       | 416786       | 418984       |
| Bihar                  | 963361       | 805688       | 691555       | 884848       |
| Delhi                  | 0            | 0            | 0            | 0            |
| Gujarat                | 1733518      | 1682894      | 1770482      | 1718070      |
| Haryana                | 966303       | 894073       | 895074       | 927060       |
| Himachal Pradesh       | 384958       | 368714       | 394071       | 515126       |
| Jammu &Kashmir         | 287942       | 276421       | 280152       | 328699       |
| Karnataka              | 2221846      | 2321672      | 2384967      | 2590699      |
| Kerala                 | 4262729      | 4228860      | 4370675      | 3966300      |
| Kolkata                | 906002       | 880780       | 828837       | 847939       |
| Madhya Pradesh         | 1690829      | 1619494      | 1821156      | 2001629      |
| Maharashtra            | 2808582      | 2625811      | 2581984      | 2638142      |
| North East             | 420762       | 425055       | 431817       | 440635       |
| Orissa                 | 1107510      | 1152479      | 1249985      | 1258121      |
| Punjab                 | 1364586      | 1319319      | 1255931      | 1349452      |
| Rajasthan              | 1510691      | 1427894      | 1365539      | 1469606      |
| Tamil Nadu             | 3923374      | 4083344      | 3448217      | 3710914      |
| UP (East)              | 1324980      | 1323973      | 1330348      | 1594999      |
| UP (West)              | 1130213      | 1052381      | 1051594      | 1147770      |
| West Bengal            | 649006       | 632644       | 569175       | 509849       |
| Grand Total            | 3,13,62,352  | 3,09,07,876  | 3,00,97,857  | 3,14,14,218  |

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