BSNL, Vodafone Idea showing positive signs: TRAI chairman

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and the country’s third-largest private telecom operator Vodafone Idea (Vi) have started showing “positive signs” on the back of support from the government and the industry, said a senior official of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) on Friday.

Anil Kumar Lahoti, Chairman of TRAI, in a panel discussion at an industry event said that both Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have rolled out their 5G networks in all licensed service areas (LSAs).

“We have today almost four telecom players broadly in the country, of which, at least two have rolled out 5G in almost all the licensed service areas. The other two, that is BSNL and Vodafone Idea, which have got the financial support, have started showing positive signs,” he said.

The Chairman said the government has provided a financial support nearly Rs 3.2 lakh crore to BSNL in three tranches to revive the telecom PSU.

“…it was decided that it is important to have a PSU player in this sector and I think we should start seeing positive results,” Lahoti said.

With respect to Vi’s recently concluded Rs 18,000 crore follow-on public offer (FPO), the official said that the industry and people have “shown confidence in the company and the company is now saying they are on the path of recovery”.

“This is again a good sign for a country like India. Having four healthy players is a good from the point of view of consumers and health of the industry,” the top official of the telecom regulator said.