Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), once referred to as the king of wireline broadband services in India, is very soon going to slip to the third rank in the space (behind Airtel and Jio). While Jio has already claimed the number one rank, Airtel is now very close to surpassing BSNL’s wireline subscriber market share percentage. This is largely because of the driving demand for fiber internet services in India which BSNL can’t fulfil in the same manner as the private internet service providers (ISPs). It is not that BSNL lacks good plans or competitive offerings. Instead, the issue is that the telco can’t expand as fast as the private ISPs because of capital issues.
BSNL Wireline Subscriber Base Stood at 7094248 Users at the End of October 2022
According to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India’s (TRAI) latest monthly performance report for the telecom operators, BSNL’s wireline subscriber base stood at 70,94,248 or 7.09 million users. The state-run telco lost 5895 users in the segment as its wireline subscriber base for September 2022 was 71,00,143 or 7.10 million users. BSNL’s market share in the wireline segment at the end of Oct 2022 was 26.45%. This is lower compared to 26.82% in September 2022.
MTNL (Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited) Market Share Slipped as Well
MTNL’s market share in the wireline subscribers segment was 9.59% at the end of Oct 2022. MTNL also saw a MoM (month-over-month) decline in market share as it stood higher at 9.77% in September 2022. MTNL offers services only in two circles, including Mumbai and Delhi. MTNL lost 13,684 subscribers in a month, according to the TRAI report and had 25,71,502 subscribers at the end of Oct 2022. There was a subscriber loss in both the Mumbai and Delhi markets. BSNL is currently offering fiber broadband services under the brand BSNL Bharat Fibre. MTNL, on the other hand, doesn’t offer fiber broadband plans such as what BSNL provides to customers.
