• BSNL sees dip in the number of internet and landline users in Guwahati
• There was a drop of 14,600 landline users and 5,500 internet users in the last five years
• Data revealed by BSNL shows a continuous decline in number of users over the years
• The rate of decline of the users has been almost consistent through the years
• The company’s profits have also taken a hit resulting in customers opting to port their service providers
The number of users of the services of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) from Guwahati has reduced drastically in the last five years. They have shifted to other mobile, landline as well as internet service providers.
An RTI (Right to Information) request filed in this connection revealed a drop of more than 14,600 BSNL landline users while more than 5,500 internet users have switched their service providers in the last five years in Guwahati.
There were a total of 53,536 BSNL landline users in Guwahati in 2013-14 whereas this number saw a steep decline to 38,872 in 2017-18. Further, there were 16,378 internet users in 2013-14 which became 10,865 in 2017-18.
The data shows a continuous decline in the number of users opting for BSNL’s services over the years. Additionally, the rate of decline of the users has been almost consistent through the years.
There was an initial decline of 3,000 customers from 2013-14 to 2014-15. The next year saw a decline of 5000 users, then 1000 users and finally 6000 users left the services in 2016-17.
Further, the profits of the company also took a hit over the years. In the past five years, BSNL’s profits in the GSM section saw a steep decline from Rs 43.75 crores in 2013-14 to Rs 13.08 crores in 2017-18.
On the other hand, the Wimax sector or the internet service of the company is the only segment which saw an increase in its profits during the past five years. Wimax services registered a profit of Rs 18.5 lakhs in 2013-14 which increased to Rs 26.8 lakhs in 2017-18.
However, the profits of the CDMA service saw the most exponential decline from Rs 2.2 crores to Rs 29 lakhs.
Irked by the services, a former BSNL mobile service user informed G Plus, “I was facing a lot of call drop issues and the network connectivity was also consistently poor and I was left with no other option but to switch,” said Vedant Kalita, a student, who switched from BSNL to a private service provider a few months ago.
Another irked customer, Brajesh Talukdar, said that he had to connect one number repeatedly to get through to the other side.
“The call mostly did not get connected in the first attempt and I had to dial a number at least twice or thrice before I could connect my call due to network congestion,” he informed.
A senior BSNL official said that they are focussing on bettering the network services in order to bring back the customers from these domains.
A few months ago, Reliance customers were left stranded after Reliance Communication terminated its services and two lakh customers in Guwahati shifted to different networks.
Following Reliance Communication’s debacle, Aircel customers started experiencing network congestion and started opting for different networks. Close to five lakh Aircel customers were stranded with no network.
