Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)'s Fibre to the home (FTTH) connections have witnessed a major jump in Kerala in the past two years, hitting a total of 3.6 lakh connections. Although it was launched in 2010, only around 19,000 connections were provided till 2018, as more connections were being given through the old copper broadband.
The Kerala circle contributes close to 18% of the total 20 lakh FTTH connections of the BSNL across the country.
Exclusive franchisees
The jump in the FTTH connections, given partly through the BSNL exclusive outsourced franchisees, is a rare positive for the telecom major, which has still not been given clearance for 4G by the Union government. In the initial years after the FTTH launch, its franchisees were outsourced mainly to cable operators. But these franchisees, who handle multiple telecom operators, used to give more preference to private operators.
In 2018, the BSNL brought about a change in its outsourcing policy, allowing retired employees to be a franchisee for providing connections. The Sanchar Nigam Executives' Association (SNEA) also floated the idea of a cooperative for this purpose. Although the cooperative is yet to take off, the new franchisees, who handled only BSNL connections, led to a slow increase in connections.
Stable connections
The high demand for data, for work from home and online classes, after the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, also led to more migration to BSNL FTTH, as it provided fairly stable connections at high speeds at affordable rates. Private operators in the State being unable to handle the load in the initial months of the pandemic also contributed to this shift. The shifting of customers from the traditional broadband connection to the FTTH also led to an increase in numbers.
The entry level FTTH connection is available at ₹329 a month, offering 20 Mbps speed till 1,000 GB data download. The Fibre basic plus connection offers 60 Mbps speed till 3,300 GB. The Superstar Premium connection provides 100 Mbps speed till 1,000 GB at ₹749. There are connections offering speeds up to 300 Mbps and 6,500 GB of monthly data. But private players are fast catching up with predatory pricing practices.
In all corners
“The FTTH is a sector which has long-term business prospects, especially with features like IP TV. Now there are around 350 outsourced partners exclusively handling BSNL connections. Unlike private players, the BSNL has a nationwide mesh connection linking every corner and the legacy of decades of being in the sector. A majority of the BSNL employees want the public sector company to survive and strengthen itself and the FTTH is one of the ways forward,” says Joseph Thomas, a former BSNL employee and secretary of the BSNL Exclusive Telecom Infra Providers’ Association (BeTA), who runs one of the franchisees.
One of the demands of the association is for the BSNL to step up its IPTV service, for the delivery of television content through the Internet. With its customer base, even if one third of them subscribes, it could attract major OTT players for tie ups with BSNL. This would make available OTT content at lower rates for BSNL, and by extension to its customers.
