Imminent Death of BSNL

BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) provides telephone and internet services to people across India. The  Chennai floods in 2017 left the entire city in shambles. Most of the internet service providers took months to restore their service. However BSNL was at the top of its game. Even though the private operators were not able to provide connectivity to the city, BSNL rose up to the disaster and ensured connectivity and minimal disruption.

I decided to take up BSNL connection at home. However the experience was not so pleasant. I had the connection for about 2 years. The connection was never stable and it hardly worked. I made several attempts to reach out to the concerned authorities. They would take the complaint and sit on it. The cable is cut, there are cable issues in your area are the constant responses you would hear from them. My home is not too far from the BSNL office and they are unable (or) not willing to fix this problem. When you talk directly to the technician, he would recommend switching providers.

I gave up and chose a private provider and in less than 24 hours the connection was installed the internet speed is amazing. If you talk to folks at BSNL, many private operators lease lines (not sure what the technical word is) and resell BSNL services. You will not be surprised to learn that BSNL is not able to pay salaries to its employees.

Doordarshan, the State run television network was killed when the private television operators came into play. It is not rocket science to figure out the nexus between Doordarshan and the private operators. The same is the fate of BSNL.

The Government of India should exit providing such services to people if they are not able to provide quality. It is a drain on the public exchequer and the funds can be effectively utilized for education (or) healthcare. I can empathize with the BSNL officials and the Government of India with the numerous challenges (opportunities) we have. With the rapid changes happening in the telecom space, I hope we can fix it or kill it.