New Delhi: State-owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has witnessed a major financial and operational turnaround over the past two years, with its revenue increasing from Rs 21,000 crore to Rs 25,000 crore, the Ministry of Communications said on Monday.
BSNL’s revival under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi has transformed the telecom PSU from a struggling enterprise into a key driver of digital inclusion and national development, Union Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development, Dr. Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani said.
The minister said the company adopted a disciplined and systematic approach similar to private sector operations to address long-standing issues such as poor work culture, ageing infrastructure and weak tower performance.
“We approached the revival with systematic rigour and private-sector discipline. The results are now visible through stronger finances, indigenous technology and connectivity reaching India’s remotest corners,” Pemmasani said.
Highlighting the company’s financial recovery, he said BSNL’s EBITDA surged sharply from just Rs 50 crore to nearly Rs 7,000 crore in two years.
Pemmasani explained that the turnaround was driven by targeted infrastructure improvements and strict monitoring mechanisms.
In states such as Andhra Pradesh, where tower uptime had dropped to nearly 75 per cent, BSNL set a target of achieving 95 per cent uptime.
The company replaced nearly 50,000 batteries across 50,000 towers, upgraded power plants and changed ageing cables to improve network quality.
The minister also highlighted the rapid deployment of indigenous 4G technology as a major milestone for the company.
“We launched indigenous 4G on 100,000 towers within a single year and have now perfected it to near-global standards. India is now only the fifth country in the world to develop such deep indigenous 4G technology,” he said.
On rebuilding customer trust, Pemmasani said BSNL has kept tariffs significantly lower than private telecom operators and has started distributing Re 1 SIM cards through India Post offices to encourage people to test the service.
(IANS)
