Posted by Mumbai: BSNL staff across India are demanding the Indian government to launch 4G services on an immediate basis.
BSNL staff under the AUAB (All Unions and Associations of BSNL) have initiated a twitter campaign #BSNL4GNow on Monday from 11 am to 1 pm demanding the roll of 4G services on BSNL networks across the country.
#BSNL4GNow
This new campaign demanding 4G services for BSNL is part of an on-going major demand of reviving and restructuring of the company.
AUAB is a top body of various employees unions like SNEA (Sanchar Nigam Executives’ Associations) across BSNL staff working and operating all over India.
Overall, BSNL has more than 70,000 staff. It offers both fixed landline and mobile phone services in every part of the country including remote hilly terrains of northeast and islands in the Indian ocean. In addition, it also offers managed cloud and datacentre services to enterprises.
“This is an appeal to all the employees of BSNL to massively participate and support AUAB Twitter campaign for the immediate launching of 4G service by BSNL and also for BSNL revival,” according to AUAB’s online notice posted on Twitter.
“As per the revival plan approved by the union cabinet, BSNL 4G services should have been launched by this time. But, unfortunately, due to various reasons best known to BSNL management and the DoT, BSNL 4G launching is getting terribly delayed.”
“The sufferers due to this delay, are the citizens of India especially the peoples in rural areas, where still the internet is not reached. Furthermore, the delay is adversely affecting the revenue generation of BSNL. As the employee of BSNL, this is our bread and butter.”
BSNL not mentioned
Today’s online campaign #BSNL4GNow comes just a day after, PM Narendra Modi launched the undersea internet cable between Chennai and Andaman & Nicobar Islands.
Although, BSNL has played a vital role in the execution of this 2300-km submarine optical fibre cable (OFC) network project. But PM Modi hasn’t mentioned even mentioned BSNL or its contribution in this project.
And that has also left many BSNL employees disappointed and given them more reasons to agitate against the central government. More so, there’s a growing fear among BSNL employees that the company may get divested, sold or even shutdown.
BSNL’s Revival and Restructuring
The government has taken a few decisions in recent times that may help the revival and restructuring of BSNL. But there hasn’t been any substantial work done to execute those decisions so far.
And that’s were the BSNL’s future remains dark and uncertain, and gives enough reason to doubt on this BJP led Modi government and its decisions.
The DoT (Department of Telecom) – a central regulatory body cancelled BSNL’s 4G upgrade plan last month. The move comes after the government’s decision not to procure telecom gears and equipment from Chinese company Huawei due to security concerns, according to reports.
Last year, Modi government’s cabinet decided to merge BSNL with another state-owned telecom MTNL (Mahanagar Telecom Nigam Limited), which operates in metro cities. As a part of the merger plan, the government has decided to make MTNL as a subsidiary of BSNL.
The delay in decisions and execution has further downgraded BSNL’s services and competitiveness against private telcos and forced its subscribers to move to private telcos like Jio, Airtel, Idea and Vodafone.
If the government further delays 4G services for BSNL, the state-owned telco would lose its prominence, particularly in rural India.