BSNL's losses narrow to ₹5,371 crore in FY24

State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has reported an on-year rise in its Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortisation or EBITDA to ₹2,164 crore for FY24, while losses narrowed to ₹5,371 crore, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

As a result of packages and measures by the government, BSNL/MTNL have started earning operating profits from FY 2020-21, Minister of State for Communications Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.

In line with the Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative, BSNL has placed a purchase order for 1 lakh 4G sites for deployment of indigenous 4G technology, Sekhar said, adding that the equipment is upgradable to 5G.

According to the details of the last five years' performance of BSNL shared by the Minister, EBITDA stood at ₹2,164 crore in FY 24, 38.8% more than a year ago.

The loss narrowed to ₹5,371 crore in FY24, from ₹8,161 crore in FY23.

To another question on data breach in BSNL, the Minister said the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In) reported possible intrusion and data breach at BSNL on May 20, 2024.

"The same was analysed and found that one File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server had data similar to the sample data shared by CERT-In. No breach into the Home Location Register (HLR) of the telecom network has been reported by the equipment manufacturer, hence no service outage in BSNL's network," he said.

However, as a remedial measure to prevent such a probable breach, BSNL has taken steps, and access passwords to all similar FTP servers have been changed.

"Further, an Inter-Ministerial Committee (IMC) has been constituted to conduct an audit of the telecom networks and suggest remedial measures for prevention of data breaches in the Telecom networks," Sekhar said.

In 2019, the first revival package amounting to around ₹69,000 crore brought down the operating costs of BSNL and MTNL.

In 2022, a revival package amounting to around ₹1.64 lakh crore was given. It focused on infusing fresh capital, restructuring debt and viability gap funding for rural telephony among others.

In 2023, the government approved the allotment of 4G/5G spectrum to BSNL with a total outlay of around ₹89,000 crore.