BSNL as you all know is one of the India’s largest ISP because of the fact that it controls a large network of copper wires which is essential for providing ADSL broadband services. You must also know that irrespective of the large copper network that BSNL owns, it still has to purchase bandwidth from private players like VSNL, TATA, Reliance and Airtel.
Now let us come to the point that what fact will be responsible for the ultimate downfall of BSNL. The downfall of BSNL is clear from this fact only that in the latest reports from an official government survey, BSNL is the worst performer among the various PSU (Public Sector Undertaking) in India. Not only this, there is downfall of BSNL’s cash reserves also which came down by almost 100% from Rs. 29,355 Crore in fiscal 2009-2010 to Rs. 1214 Crore in fiscal year 2011-2012.
These facts are enough for proving that BSNL will ultimately become bankrupt and will vanish from the Indian broadband scene forever. But you need to remember that the only profitable sector for BSNL presently is Broadband and they know how to take advantage of the same. In the latest news BSNL raised the base tariff of various unlimited broadband plans by Rs. 25 to Rs. 50.
We all think that every new year will bring down the price of broadband plans and we will be able to enjoy high speed broadband access at affordable rates but this thing is not true for BSNL. Instead of decreasing the base tariff, BSNL performs the reverse operation.
Most consumers will be happy to pay Rs. 100 more on their present broadband plans if they can get high speed of at least 2 Mbps and a decent FUP limit of 100 GB but this cannot happen with BSNL. BSNL has some of the worst broadband plans and is still stuck at 256 Kbps. This is definitely pathetic when compared to private players like Reliance which can provide 12 Mbps broadband access at Rs. 999 per month. Again monopoly is at work in this situation also. BSNL want to recover their losses from Broadband consumers and they can do anything to recover the same.