BSNL turnaround: Company making operating profit, added subscribers in last 3 months, says Jyotiraditya Scindia

New Delhi: State-owned telecom giant BSNL has added subscribers in every single month in the last quarter and its subscriber base has grown by 50-60 lakhs as it scripts a turnaround story after recording operating profit in the last two years, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said Wednesday.

Speaking at Express Adda, he said Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) is offering telephone services in remotest village and a network upgrade is improving its service.

In June last year, the Union cabinet had approved an Rs 89,047 crore revival package for loss-making state-owned telecom operator deploy 4G and 5G services in a market dominated by private players. Debt-laden BSNL, grappling with poor infrastructure, had posted losses for the past 12 years.

"In terms of financials, yes, BSNL was bleeding. But in the last 2 years, we have had a positive EBITDA. So we are not in the red on EBITDA," he said.

While EBIDTA is positive, its bottomline was still in red.

The minister did not say when the company will be in black.

"Even today, it is only BSNL, that is reaching the last village in our country in terms of telecom service," he said. "I believe that BSNL has tremendous capabilities... My BSNL worker -- my family -- has tremendous potential, (it) just needs to be triggered." BSNL, he said, has been behind the curve as the firm choose the hard way of deploying home made equipments for service upgrade.

"It is very easy to take someone else's equipment and set it up and carry your network. And I completely understand it, because your business is not to manufacture the equipment. Your business is to provide the service. (But) BSNL choose the hard route. It said - we'll be atmanirbhar in our equipment, we will make Bhartiya equipment and on that we will provide 4G (services) to every single customer," he said.

This was not an easy decision and certainly not an easy route. "It was a gamble. But let me dare say that the gamble has worked. Because today domestic 4G is a proven technology. And to move from 4G to 5G is not going to be that difficult. Yes we are catching up today, but we hope to lead tomorrow," he said.

Scindia said MTNL's operations have been taken over by BSNL and its loans guaranteed by the Government of India and so there is reason for concern about a default.

"We need to be positive. Our PSU's are hitting Fortune 500 company standards. Our PSU's today are leading the world," he said. BSNL "has in the last three months, added subscribers in every single month. I don't want to take company names because I am not minister of BSNL but Communications... but I am proud to say that subscribers have ported through MNP from other telcos to BSNL." He went on to state that, "our subscriber base has grown, and not by 10,000-50,000 but close to 50-60 lakhs".

"BSNL is going to be at the forefront and not a follower in the days to come," he added.