Why BSNL needs to increase its customer base or cut staff

State-run telecom firm BSNL, which missed timely payment of salaries in February, serves only around 650 customers per employee, a sharp contrast from private players where per employee customers are in the range of 17,500 to 27,500. The situation at MTNL is even worse where per employee customers are a meagre 160.

BSNL has the highest number of employees on its rolls among the telecom operators in the country. BSNL has around 1.76 lakh employees for a customer base of 114.34 million at the end of December 2018. In contrast, Vodafone Idea, which is the largest telco, has just around 12,000 on-roll employees for a customer base of 418.74 million. Even if off-roll staff is counted, the employee strength of the company comes to around 15,000.

The number of customers per employee comes out to around 650 for BSNL whereas for Vodafone Idea, the number stands at about 27,916 customers per employee. Similarly, Bharti Airtel’s one employee serves around 20,000 customers. Airtel has 340.25 million customers at the end of December 2018 and an employee count of 16,962 on-roll staff.