Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)

BSNL Headquarters at New Delhi
Company type	Central Public Sector Undertaking
Industry	Telecommunications
Founded	15 September 2000; 23 years ago (2000-09-15)
Headquarters	New Delhi, Delhi , India
Area served	India
Key people	Jyotiraditya Scindia (Cabinet Minister for Communications) Shri A. Robert J. Ravi, ITS (Chairman & MD) [1]
Services	FTTH Fixed line telephone Mobile telephony Broadband Internet services Internet television IPTV
Revenue	₹21,317 crore (US$2.6 billion) (2024)[2]
Operating income	₹2,052 crore (US$250 million) (2024) [2]
Net income	₹−5,367 crore (US$−640 million) (2024)[2]
Total assets	₹167,086 crore (US$20 billion) (2024)[2]
Total equity	₹106,626 crore (US$13 billion) (2024)[2] Owner :
Owner	Department of Telecommunications, Ministry of Communications, Government of India
Number of employees	57,861 (as on 29 February 2024 as per RTI)
Divisions	Bharat Fiber BSNL Broadband BSNL Mobile Bharat Net BSNL Towers Limited[3]
Subsidiaries	Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited[4] [5]
Website	Official Website

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (abbreviated as BSNL) is an Indian central public sector undertaking under the ownership of Department of Telecommunications, which is part of the Ministry of Communications, Government of India with its headquarters in New Delhi, India. The central public sector undertaking was established on 1 October 2000 by the Government of India. Its highest official is designated as Chairperson and Managing Director who is a central civil service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Communication Finance Service cadre or central engineering service group 'A' gazetted officer from Indian Telecommunication Service cadre. It provides mobile voice and internet services through its nationwide telecommunications network across India. It is the largest government-owned-wireless telecommunications service provider in India.^[6]

The name Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited derives from Hindi, which means India Communications Corporation Limited in English.

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is an Indian government enterprise and its history can be traced back to British India. The foundation of the telecommunications network in India was laid by the British sometime during the 19th century. During the British era, the first telegraph line was established between Calcutta and Diamond Harbour in 1850. The British East India Company started using the telegraph in 1851 and until 1854 telegraph lines were laid across the country. In 1854, the telegraph service was opened to the public and the first telegram was sent from Mumbai to Pune. In 1885, the Indian Telegraph Act was passed by the British Imperial Legislative Council. After the bifurcation of the Post and Telegraph department in the 1980s, the creation of Department of Telecom eventually led to the emergence of the government owned telegraph and telephone enterprise which led to the foundation of BSNL.^[7]

For 160 years, BSNL had operated the public telegram service. In 2010 the telex network between its 182 offices was replaced with the "Web Based Telegram Messaging System" which relied on internet connections rather than telex lines (which are more reliable where power outages are more common). This led to a decline in service, and the company applied the title "diminished service" to telegrams in 2010. Finally on 15 July 2013 the public telegram service was shut down completely.^[8][9]

BSNL provides both fixed line telephones and mobile telephony services on the GSM platform.

BSNL Mobile is a major provider of GSM network services under the brand names CellOne and BSNL all over India. It has wide network coverage in both urban and rural areas of India. It has over 121.82 million customers across India.^[6]

BSNL Mobile offers prepaid, postpaid services and value-added services such as Free Phone Service (FPH), India Telephone Card (Prepaid card), Account Card Calling (ACC), Virtual Private Network (VPN), Tele-voting, Premium Rate Service (PRM). It also offers the IPTV which enables customers to watch television through the Internet and Voice and Video Over Internet Protocol (VVoIP).^[10]

BSNL Landline was launched in the early 1990s. It was the only fixed-line telephone service for the whole country before the New Telecom Policy was announced by the Department of Telecom in 1999. Only the Government-owned BSNL and MTNL were allowed to provide land-line phone services through copper wire in the country. BSNL Landline is the largest fixed-line telephony in India. It has over 9.55 million customers and 47.20% market share in the country as of 28 February 2021.^[6]

BSNL is the fourth largest ISP in India, having presence throughout the country. It also has the largest fibre-based telecom network in the country, around 7.5 lakh kilometers, among the four operators in the country.^[11]

BSNL Broadband provides telecom services to enterprise customers including MPLS, P2P and Internet leased lines. It provides fixed-line services and landline using CDMA technology and its own extensive optical fiber network. BSNL provides Internet access services through dial-up connections as prepaid, NetOne as postpaid, and DataOne as BSNL Broadband.^[12][13]

BSNL Bharat Fiber (FTTH) was launched in February 2019. It offers TV over IP (IPTV), Video On-Demand (VoD), Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), Audio On-Demand (AoD), Bandwidth On-Demand (BoD), remote education, video conferencing services, interactive gaming, and Virtual Private LAN services. BSNL has said that its optic fiber network provides fixed access to deliver high-speed Internet up to 300 Mbit/s.^[14][15][16]

With effect to the government of India's policy decision to provide state-owned BSNL with another revival package worth 1.64 lakh crore rupees, the struggling PSU was merged with Government's special purpose vehicle BBNL. This gave the struggling PSU a boost and an additional advantage of additional 5.67 lakh kilometres of optical fibre which has been laid across 1.85 lakh village panchayats in the country using the Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF). Currently, it has an optical fibre cable network of over 6.83 lakh kilometre.^[5]

BSNL started 4G service in some parts of India such as Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh in January 2019, but it is limited to a few cities and towns. Most of its 4G services are currently available in Southern India. However, BSNL is trying to launch pan India 4G services up to September 2022.^[17][18] The telecom minister said that BSNL will launch its 4G services all over India on the 75th Independence day of India along with various other projects.^[19]

BSNL is set to launch 4G nationwide, upgrading 10,000+ towers and announcing new 4G plans with unlimited voice, data, and more.

On behalf of the government of India, the Minister of Communications Ashwini Vaishnaw announced that the State-Owned Telco would start its 5G operations by 15 August 2023. He also added that the 4G and 5G network of the state-owned BSNL would be a completely home-grown indigenous 4G and 5G network technology; thus, emphasising more on Govt. of India's Atmanirbhar Bharat.^{[20][21][22][23]}

On 16 August 2018, BSNL launched "BSNL Wings Services" in 22 telecom circles, in which there is no need for a SIM card or cable wiring as is a VoIP service through an app.^[24] It offers unlimited free calling for one year throughout India.^[25]

BSNL has made significant strides in enhancing connectivity through its robust submarine communication cable systems. These undersea optical fiber cables play a crucial role in bridging geographical gaps, enabling seamless communication between India and neighboring regions.

Let’s delve into the key submarine cable systems operated by BSNL:

1. Bharat Lanka Cable System (BLCS)^[26][27]

• Launch Date: October 2, 2006

• Purpose: The BLCS directly connects India and Sri Lanka.
• Length: Approximately 320 kilometers.
• Initial Capacity: Launched in October 2006 with an initial capacity of 40 Gbps, later upgraded to 960 Gbps.
• Ownership: Jointly built by BSNL and Sri Lanka Telecom (SLT).
• Significance: The BLCS enhances communication between the two countries, supporting voice and data connectivity.

2. Kochi-Lakshadweep Islands Submarine Cable (KLI)^{[28][29][30][31]}

• Launch Date: January 12, 2024

• Purpose: Developed under the Government of India’s ‘Digital India’ Mission, the KLI system connects Kochi (a major port city in India) with the Lakshadweep Islands.
• Length: Approximately 1,870 kilometers.
• Capacity: Initial capacity of 2x100 Gbps, expandable up to 1,600 Gbps per fiber pair.
• Island Connectivity: The KLI cable links Kochi to islands including Agatti, Andrott, Amini, Bangaram, Bitra, Chetlat, Kadmat, Kavaratti, Kiltan, Kelpeni and Minicoy.

BSNL is primarily divided into three vertical divisions:

• BSNL - Consumer Fixed Access (CFA), wire line and broadband business.
• BSNL - Consumer Mobility (CM), wireless business, primarily 3G/4G GSM services, WLL-M services. WLL-M
• BSNL - Enterprise Business, Enterprise customers on turnkey basis.

Other than these three vertical divisions, there are electrical wings and civil wings which take care of real estate monetization.

Horizontally, BSNL is divided into a number of administrative units, variously known as telecom circles, metro districts, project circles and specialized units. It has 24 telecom circles, two metro districts, six project circles, four maintenance regions, five telecom factories, three training institutions and four specialized telecom units.^[32] Each circle is headed by a Chief General Manager (CGM) who is an officer of Indian Telecom Service (ITS).

The organisational structure of BSNL is as follows: Chief General Manager being the head of the Circle who is the officer of HAG+ level, assisted by three or four Principal General Manager (PGM) who is the officer of grade HAG. The districts over a circle is being headed by the designations as General Manager officer of grade of SAG who looks over around two to four districts, while where the connections are less and the smaller district is being headed by Telecom District Manager (TDM) Officer of the grade of JAG and Telecom Divisional Engineer (TDE) officer of STS grade, all the officers above the post of TDE (including TDE) are of Group A and they are the officers of grade of Indian Telecom Service (ITS) directly or promotive. Then the Group B consists of Additional Divisional Engineer, Sub Divisional Engineer and Junior Telecom officer and then the organisation has Group C and D employees.

On 24 October 2019, the Government of India announced a revival package for BSNL and MTNL which includes monetising assets, raising funds, TD-LTE spectrum, and a voluntary retirement scheme for employees. Apart from the package, the Ministry of Communications has decided to merge MTNL with BSNL. Pending this, MTNL will be a wholly owned subsidiary of BSNL.^{[4][33][34][35]}

On 24 October 2019, the Government of India announced a revival package for BSNL and has given its agreement to an in-principle merger (operational merger, i.e. only the operations of MTNL and BSNL would be merged and they would be managed by BSNL) for MTNL and BSNL^[36]

On 27 July 2022, the Government of India announced another revival package for the state-owned BSNL, for providing 4G and 5G services making the PSU more viable and vibrant and turning it into a profit making organisation; under this policy decision the government also merged BBNL with BSNL.^[5]

In 2012 Nikhil Thakur, a hacker and Internet activist, broke into the Madhya Pradesh BSNL website and later on hacked the India BSNL website.^[37][38]

In July 2017, BSNL suffered a cyber attack which affected south India, especially Karnataka, when malware affected the telco's broadband network using modems with default passwords.^[39] The virus reportedly affected 60,000 modems and blocked their internet connectivity. Later BSNL issued an advisory notice to its broadband customers, urging them to change their default router username and passwords.^[40]

• Government of India
• BSNL Broadband
• BSNL Mobile
• Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited
• Telecommunications in India
• List of telecom companies in India
• List of mobile network operators

• Official website

v t e Ministry of Communications (India)
Department of Telecommunications	Statutory Bodies Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) Attached Offices Controller General of Communication Accounts (CGCA) Director General Telecom (DGT) Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC) Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) Subordinate Offices National Centre for Communication Security (NCCS) Wireless Monitoring Organisation (WMO) Field Offices Controller of Communication Accounts (CCA) Autonomous Bodies Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) Training Institutes National Telecommunications Institute for Policy Research Innovation Training (NTIPRIT) National Institute of Communication Finance (NICF) Others Centre for Excellence in Telecom Technology and Management Digital Communications Commission Telecom Enforcement Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Telephone Advisory Committees (TAC) Wireless Planning & Coordination Wing (WPC) PSUs Bharat Broadband Network Limited (BBNL) Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) Indian Telephone Industries Limited (ITI) Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) Civil Service Indian Telecommunication Service Indian Radio Regulatory Service
Department of Posts	Army Postal Service India Post India Post Payments Bank
Legislations	The Indian Telegraph Act, 1885 The Indian Wireless Telegraphy Act, 1940 The Indian Post Office Act, 1898 The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997
Ministers	Rafi Ahmed Kidwai Amrit Kaur Jagjivan Ram Raj Bahadur Lal Bahadur Shastri S. K. Patil Jawaharlal Nehru P. Subbarayan Ashoke Kumar Sen Satya Narayan Sinha Ram Subhag Singh Indira Gandhi Sher Singh Hemvati Nandan Bahuguna Kasu Brahmananda Reddy Shankar Dayal Sharma Morarji Desai Parkash Singh Badal George Fernandes Brij Lal Varma Charan Singh Shyam Nandan Mishra Bhishma Narain Singh C. M. Stephen Anant Prasad Sharma Rajiv Gandhi V. N. Gadgil Arjun Singh Vasant Sathe Bir Bahadur Singh V. P. Singh K. P. Unnikrishnan Chandra Shekhar Atal Bihari Vajpayee Beni Prasad Verma Buta Singh Sushma Swaraj Jagmohan Ram Vilas Paswan Pramod Mahajan Arun Shourie Dayanidhi Maran A. Raja Manmohan Singh Kapil Sibal Ravi Shankar Prasad Ashwini Vaishnaw (incumbent)
Ministers of State	Manoj Sinha Sanjay Shamrao Dhotre Devusinh Jesingbhai Chauhan (incumbent)
Preceding Ministry: Ministry of Communications and Information Technology

v t e Telecommunication companies of India
Mobile operators	Active Airtel DoT BSNL BSNL Mobile MTNL Vodafone Idea Jio MVNOs Aerovoyce Defunct Aircel Essar Etisalat (Cheers Mobile) !dea Loop MTS Orange RCom S Tel spice Tata DoCoMo T24 Virgin Telenor Tulip Telecom Videocon Vodafone
Internet providers	ACT Fibernet Airtel APSFL Asianet Digital BSNL BSNL Broadband MTNL InCablenet Jio DEN Networks Hathway Railtel Reliance Sify SPECTRA Tata Teleservices Tikona Excitel Broadband
DTH operators	ABS Free Dish Airtel digital TV Digiana DD Free Dish Dish TV d2h Zing Digital Grand TV Hathway Independent TV Siti Networks Sun Direct Tata Play
Infrastructure providers	GAILTEL POWERTEL Bharti Infratel Indus Towers HughesNet American Tower
Datacenter providers	National Informatics Centre ESDS GPX Netmagic NxtGen Nxtra Data Yotta Tata Communications Global Cloud Xchange
Internet exchanges	Mumbai IX National Internet Exchange of India AMR IX Extreme IX AMS-IX
Equipment manufacturers	HFCL Sterlite Technologies Vindhya Telelinks Tejas Networks Indian Telephone Industries Limited REIT India
Policies	Digital India Bharat Broadband Network
Agencies	Department of Telecommunications Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology Ministry of Communications (India) Centre for Development of Advanced Computing Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal
Associations	Cellular Operators Association of India
Related links	Internet in India Telecommunications in India Net neutrality in India

BSNL Recharge Plans