BSNL Must Step Up Its Game To Survive

Pumping in taxpayers’ money to revive the struggling PSU will be meaningless without a plan to compete for customers

- Thomas K Thomas

Employees of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) are in a self-congratulatory mode, claiming credit for convincing the Centre to embark on a ₹70,000-crore revival plan. But no revival plan can succeed by just pumping in money. If BSNL wants to survive in a highly competitive telecom sector, it needs to quickly put in place a turnaround strategy. In the past too, the Centre has given financial aid to BSNL in the form of refunds on spectrum payments, soft loans, and grants to keep the struggling public sector company afloat.

But all this financial support over the years has not helped BSNL to do one thing that it needs to do: compete for customers with the likes of Airtel and Reliance Jio.

This is going to be the biggest challenge for an organisation that has layers of bureaucratic decision-making apparatus and a culture that does not put customers at the centre.

Entering the digital race

The new paradigm in telecom is data; and here, whoever gives the best experience will emerge winner. This experience is driven by device, content, access, application, storage and security. This is a world that will survive on millennial consumption, who would be a large part of the market. They have a way of assessing brands.