New Delhi, June 25: For the last few months, BSNL isn’t in a very good position. The state-owned telecom operator has been struggling for the last few years to gain traction in the market, especially after the Jio uprising in 2016. Despite struggling with its services, BSNL has been lately gone to the private sector way of offering more benefits with its prepaid and postpaid plans to lure more customers. However, the company hasn’t been able to solve its financial crisis and is now seeking help from the government once again to stay afloat.
According to a recent report from Business Standard, BSNL is in a serious financial crisis once again and is seeking the government’s help, which in turn has turned to the banks for loans. The government is asking for a loan of Rs 2500 crores to keep the company afloat for at least the next six months. The negotiations are already underway and plans are being discussed for favourable repayment options.
Although plans are underway for granting the loan amount, it is said that the Rs 2,500 crores loan won’t be enough to keep the company running for long and it would need to lay off staff to ease the financial pressure. The company is now struggling to pay the salaries for all its employees and the Centre has approved Rs 850 crores to help with that.
The government is also planning a revival strategy in the meantime for both BSNL and MTNL to help them recover from the massive financial situations. The telecom sector in its entirety is under a debt of Rs 6.1 lakh crore and BSNL itself owes Rs 13,500 crores.
There are reasons why BSNL is struggling to keep itself alive. In an age when most telecom operators are preparing to move to 5G networks, BSNL is still stuck with 3G network. BSNL is testing its 4G network in certain states of the country but the extremely late move isn’t helping the company in any way. Moreover, the company has lately started offering benefits with its plans to lure customers. Although that has helped it remain the only second operator to gain subscribers per month, that isn’t enough to keep it financially afloat. Agencies
