Government-owned telecom operator BSNL has a ‘Vodafone plan’ to take on bigger rivals Airtel and Reliance Jio. The company’s employee union has sent a letter to the telecom and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw (seen by The Economic Times), asking to be allowed to use Vodafone-Idea’s 4G network. The letter is reportedly from BSNL employee’s union General Secretary P Abhimanyu.
In the letter, BSNL union has claimed that due to the non-availability of 4G services a huge number of its customers are porting out to rival telecom service providers like Reliance Jio and Airtel. Both these players, the letter said, offer “state-of-the-art 5G technology.”

Why BSNL wants to use Vodafone-Idea’s 4G network

BSNL union wants to use Vodafone-Idea’s 4G network to help retain its subscribers. In the letter, BSNL union pointed out that the government of India being the largest shareholder in Vodafone-Idea with 33.1% share can easily facilitate the sharing of 4G network between the two. Also, it said that Vodafone-Idea has been losing customers and its network is not congested, so this kind of arrangement can be good for both the companies. Incidentally, the letter terms this sharing of 4G network as a temporary measure only. “This will only be a temporary measure, till BSNL’s 4G network is commissioned by TCS,” it said.

Status of BSNL 4G

TCS is set to deploy BSNL’s 4G network in a phased manner. In some circles, a few thousand sites are already up and running. However, as the network is not available pan-India, the state-run telco is said to be losing customers.