Govt of India has stopped all Govt employees from using Airtel, Jio or Vi for their communication needs.
Henceforth, every Govt employees has been mandated to use only BSNL or MTNL services.
What is the reason here?
Govt Of India: No Airtel, Jio or Vi For Govt Employees
Department of Telecommunications or DoT has issued a strict directive to all Govt employees: Dont use Airtel or Jio or Vi, and only use BSNL and MTNL services for official works.
This rule applies to all Ministries, Public Departments and public sector units in India.
DoT issued this notice: “The government of India has, inter-alia, approved the mandatory utilisation of capacities of BSNL and MTNL by all ministries/departments of government of India, CPSEs, central autonomous bodies,”
All secretaries and departments have been issued this notice and its applicable immediately.
This means that if any Govt employee is using private telecom service provider for their communication needs, they need to switch over to BSNL or MTNL with immediate effect.
The notice further states that not only mobile, but broadband connections and landline services too need to be only BSNL or MTNL.
Why Using BSNL Is Now Compulsory For All Govt Employees?
BSNL is reeling under heavy losses, and last year, talks were on to even sell BSNL to private firms or shut it down.
Employees had not received salaries for month, and anger was rising.
Govt was forced to come up with Rs 29,000 crore revival package for BSNL & MTNL to survive.
Recently, BSNL was able to raise Rs 8500 crore via sovereign guarantee bonds, which will be used to expand their network and kickstart 4G services which still hasn’t been able to roll out for all BSNL users.
Govt’s decision to impose BSNL and MTNL services for all Govt employees can be a way to increase the usage of BSNL, and divert more funds to the state-run carrier.
However, the pathetic service of BSNL was highlighted and complained by several MPs last year, and this can be a major issue for the Govt employees now.
We hope that BSNL is able to pull up its socks, and provide even better service than Airtel or Jio.
We will keep you updated, as more details come in.