Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has won customers from Vodafone Idea (Vi) after the latter did a tariff hike exercise with Jio and Airtel. Vi CEO Akshaya Moondra confirmed the development during the recently concluded earnings call for Q1 FY25. Moondra said that this has happened because BSNL has not increased its tariffs. There is a possibility that BSNL has also won customers from Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel after the hike.
But the telco hasn’t panicked after seeing this. Vi believes that customers who decided to switch without much thought are likely to come back as BSNL can’t offer competitive 4G services.
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Moondra said, “One of the trends we have seen is that the port to BSNL has generally increased from the pre-tariff hike levels. The reason for that is that they (BSNL) have not increased their tariffs, so there is a fair amount of arbitrage going on.”
“We expect that customers who are used to good coverage and experience with 4G are unlikely to utilise BSNL’s current offerings and that those who have taken a quick decision on tariff measures are most likely to come back,” he added.
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As BSNL is busy rolling out 4G, the state-owned telecom operator will find it difficult to compete with the offerings of Vodafone idea which will also launch 5G soon. The company said it is closely monitoring the situation and will see what needs to be done.
The entry-level prices are still quite affordable for users, Vi’s CEO said, so it shouldn’t affect customers much. “My feeling is that since the entry-level price hike has been minimal this time around, it shouldn’t result in that much SIM consolidation,” he said.
