The number of subscribers to the government-owned telecom service providers MTNL and BSNL has decreased over the past three years as a result of “stiff competition” in the market and the dearth of widespread 4G services, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

Devusinh Chauhan, the Minister of State for Communications, stated in a written response to a question from the Lok Sabha that BSNL and MTNL have been operationally profitable since 2020–21 as a result of a financial relief package from the Centre.

“The lack of full-scale 4G services and intense competition in the telecom sector are the causes of the decline in subscribers. According to the government’s Atmanirbhar initiative, BSNL has issued purchase orders for 1 lakh sites in order to roll out 4G services throughout India over the course of the following 18 to 24 months,” Chauhan said.

MTNL had 32.96 lakh subscribers for its wireless services in 2021, which declined by 29 percent to 23.5 lakh subscribers as of March 2023, according to the reply, PTI reported.

In addition, BSNL saw a 12.6 percent decline in the number of subscribers to its wireless services as of March 31, 2023, from 11.85 crore to 10.35 crore.

However, the number of BSNL wireline subscribers increased by 7 percent to 71 lakh in March 2023 from 66.49 lakh in March 2021.

However, the number of MTNL wireline customers decreased by about 20 percent to 23.12 lakh in March of this year from 29.03 lakh in March of last year.

The central government approved a Rs 70,000-crore revival package in 2019, the minister claimed, adding that both BSNL and MTNL then became “operationally profitable.”

In July 2022, the Union Cabinet approved a second BSNL revival package totaling Rs 1.64 lakh crore.

With a total investment of Rs 89,047 crore, the Center approved the allocation of 4G and 5G spectrum to BSNL in June.