BSNL walks out as surprise winner of July tariff battle

State-owned player didn’t hike charges while pvt peers jacked up prices by over 20%

After continuously bleeding subscribers for nearly two years, state-owned telecom services provider BSNL added 2.9 million users in July when its private-sector rivals raised tariffs by nearly 20 per cent.

With BSNL keeping tariffs unchanged, many subscribers using entry-level plans shifted from Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi), said analysts.

BSNL had lost 0.74 million users in June, according to the data provided by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

Data for July released by the telecom regulator on Friday showed that market leader Jio lost 0.7 million users after gaining 1.91 million in June.

Airtel emerged as the biggest loser at 1.69 million after adding 1.25 million users in June.

Cash-strapped Vi, meanwhile, lost 1.41 million users, which was fewer than Airtel.

Among the private telecom firms, Vi had lost the most subscribers for two years till June, when it had lost 0.86 million users.

The tariff hkes have also led to sim consolidation and subscription cancellations, data showed.

The overall number of mobile phone connections in India decreased by 0.92 million in July, after rising by 1.58 million, 2 million and 1.47 million in the preceding three months.

Trai data also revealed 13.68 million subscribers had submitted requests for mobile number portability (MNP) in July, up from 11.84 million in June.

Lower-cost 4G

Despite the latest additions, BSNL had 3.26 million fewer users at the end of July, as compared to the beginning of 2024.

The loss-making firm is currently aiming to roll out its homegrown 4G network nationwide with 100,000 towers by the middle of next year.

The telco had installed 4G sites in all four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai.

Sites are also active in most of the state capitals including Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Raipur, and Chandigarh, BSNL officials had said.

But new 4G plans unveiled in July by BSNL may have also given it an edge over others.

New users can avail of the Rs 108 plan with unlimited voice calls, 1 GB daily 4G data for 28 days.

Meanwhile, Airtel's cheapest monthly plan is priced at Rs 199, and Jio's minimum monthly plans offering 9 GB, 6 GB, and 3 GB of additional 4G data, respectively are priced at Rs 151, Rs 101 and Rs 51. But Jio also offers free upgrades to 5G.

Tariff hikes

Breaking a record 30-month logjam, India's telecom sector saw the three private sector telcos raise tariffs starting July 3-4.

In late-June, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea announced a hike in mobile tariffs by up to 21 per cent, while Jio implemented an across-the-board hike of 12-25 percent.

Among the telcos, while Airtel raised tariffs by a smaller margin, the decision impacted its 2G subscriber base.

Jio hasn’t touched that category. Vi has focused on unlimited data plans, spanning validity periods from 28 days to one year.

Back then, analysts had predicted the customer churn will be modest after tariff hikes as most of the market is consolidated.

The last major industry wide tariff hikes had taken place back in December 2021, when average prices had been raised by 20 per cent.

It had seen sim consolidation of 4-5 per cent.

Before that, the telcos had gone for hikes in 2019, the first since Jio began operations in 2016.