NEW DELHI: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has set an ambitious target of increasing its average revenue per user (Arpu) by almost 50% to ₹150 in the current fiscal year. This after a recent annual review flagged concerns “regarding the stagnation of core business revenue” of the state-owned telecom operator, according to the meeting document seen by Mint.
The target was set at a review meeting of BSNL with communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on 23 April. It assumes significance as the Arpu of Reliance Jio, the largest telecom operator by market share, grew 4% YoY in the March quarter and was little changed sequentially in the absence of tariff hikes.
BSNL’s Arpu, a key telecom metric that reflects the average monthly revenue generated per subscriber and is widely used to gauge profitability and monetization, increased 42% to ₹101 in FY26 from ₹71 in the previous year, the communications ministry said in a statement dated 23 April.
While the BSNL management maintains that the company is moving into a growth phase with 4G increasing data consumption, analysts have questioned the sharp Arpu increase. This is because, according to BSNL’s annual reports, its cellular revenue has largely been flat over FY22-FY25, growing only 3% in FY25, which does not show strong growth in user spending.
“Cellular revenue itself constitutes only about a quarter of BSNL’s overall revenue, limiting the scope for sharp jumps,” said Parag Kar, an independent telecom analyst. “Against this backdrop, the rise in Arpu to ₹101 implies either 42% revenue growth or a sharp fall in active subscribers. Given current trends, the latter appears more plausible.”
According to Kar, the FY27 Arpu target of ₹150 would require almost 50% revenue growth from FY26 levels if the subscriber base remains stable, which looks ambitious without a significant improvement in network quality and pricing power. However, the company said growth is expected to follow investments made by BSNL in modernizing its network.
“The ₹101 Arpu milestone reflects our successful 4G rollout and the trust our customers have placed in BSNL’s network modernization,” BSNL chairman and managing director Robert Ravi told Mint. “This Arpu growth validates our network transformation strategy and demonstrates that quality infrastructure drives customer value.”
Active subscribers
The telecom operator is yet to declare its financial results for the fourth quarter and FY26.
Mobile Arpu is calculated by dividing revenue from mobile services by the number of active subscribers. It can rise due to higher user spending, a shift to premium customers, or simply because the number of active subscribers declines.
The company added a net 186,757 users in the January-March quarter, taking its subscriber base to 92.9 million as of March end, according to data from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India. The company’s active subscriber base was 52.3 million, as per the regulator.
Asked about plans to achieve the new Arpu target, Ravi said, “With network stabilization now achieved through the government of India’s capital infusion and policy support, we are focused on expanding our active user base through targeted customer engagement and superior service delivery… As 4G adoption accelerates and data usage continues its upward trajectory, we are confident of achieving our target.”
Ravi refused to comment on any plans for tariff hikes by BSNL.
During the review meeting, concerns were raised over the stagnation of BSNL’s core business revenue in FY26.
“Core business growth remained flat at 3%. The fourth quarter (Q4) was particularly disappointing, as all three main business engines— Enterprise Business (EB), Consumer Mobility (CM) and Consumer Fixed Access (CFA)—missed their targets,” the meeting document said.
“We’re entering a growth phase where the results of our capex investments, backed by government support, are becoming visible,” Ravi said about the flat growth in the consumer mobility business, a major contributor to BSNL’s revenue. “When customers experience reliable, high-quality connectivity, they return to BSNL and increase their usage. We’re seeing early indicators of this trend.”
Higher-value plans
The meeting document showed that circle heads of have been asked to adopt upselling strategies to migrate users to higher-value plans in a bid to increase the Arpu.
Comparatively, Reliance Jio’s Arpu was at ₹214 as of March end, while that of Bharti Airtel was at ₹259 at the end of December and Vodafone Idea’s Arpu was at ₹172.
“Private operators operate from a substantially higher Arpu base—typically 2-3 times higher than BSNL’s,” Ravi said, adding that by expanding 4G coverage, the company is capturing latent demand from customers who value both quality and affordability.
To prevent customers from migrating to lower-cost plans, the circle heads have been asked to ensure high-quality is available to incentivize higher-tier plan adoption, as per the meeting document.
The company is betting on improving network quality and expanding its active subscriber base to drive higher user spending.
At the same time, has stepped up its network expansion plans. The company plans to deploy 23,000 additional 4G sites, alongside ongoing deployments, as part of efforts to strengthen coverage and capacity. It is exploring expansion under both capital expenditure and operational expenditure models.
So far, BSNL has deployed 4G on 100,000 tower sites across the country.
The company’s loss widened to ₹3,709 crore in the nine months ended December from ₹2,521 crore in the year-ago period. Revenue from operations rose 9.2% to ₹15,521 crore.