The union also urged the Indian government to accelerate the deployment of BSNL’s 4G and 5G mobile services
Indian workers union Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh (BMS) has demanded a rollback of the increase in mobile tariff recently implemented by local carriers Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel as well as an immediate deployment of 4G and 5G services by state-run operator BSNL, local press reported.
In a recent letter to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the union said BSNL restricts telecom operators from raising mobile tariffs as market balance, and added that it should be allowed to upgrade its infrastructure for 4G and 5G services using gear from foreign vendor until indigenous technology is developed.
“Reliance Jio and Airtel have affected the public at large and the public is being virtually forced to cough up a hefty amount to these telcos as the government telecom operator BSNL has still not rolled out its full-fledged 4G/5G service. It’s a known fact that BSNL has always acted as a market balancer in the telecom market which has always kept the private telcos in check for increasing the tariff,” BMS General Secretary Ravindra Himite said in the letter.
He went on to say that private telcos have already earned huge profits in the last few years and this new hike was totally unnecessary and without any justification. “Hence the government must take immediate efforts to force these telcos to roll back the rate hike. This rate hike by private telcos once again brings back the focus on the presence of BSNL in the telecom sector as market balancer,” the letter said.
Early this month, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea raised mobile tariffs in the range of 10-27%.
The letter highlighted that BSNL has not been able to upgrade its network to 4G/5G services because of the constraints laid down on it for not using standard 4G/5G equipment from global vendors. “We consider it paramount to allow BSNL to launch the services by allowing it to upgrade its existing Infrastructure until indigenous technology is developed,” the letter said.
“BMS urges the government to take immediate steps to ensure that BSNL can expeditiously launch its 4G services and subsequently upgrade to 5G. We are confident that with the right support, BSNL can play a crucial role in providing affordable and accessible telecom services to the people of India,” the letter said.
BSNL has already launched 4G in certain regions of India using indigenous network technology developed in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) and the government’s Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT).
BSNL is targeting a 20% market share of the country’s overall mobile market by the end of 2024 by accelerating the rollout of its 4G network, according to recent press reports.
Rival operator Reliance Jio Infocomm has already completed the rollout of 5G technology in India. The carrier has been rapidly expanding its 5G network using Standalone (SA) architecture since October 2022. Meanwhile, Bharti Airtel previously said it expected to cover the entire country with 5G technology by March 2024.
Vodafone Idea is expected to launch its 5G network this year and is currently in negotiations with vendors for 5G contracts, according to previous reports.
