The Blueprint of BSNL Murder

India's biggest IPO — Jio Platforms ₹30,213 crore at $108.3 billion — uses ₹27,500 crore of your money to repay the debt that wiped out 8 telcos and broke BSNL.

MUMBAI — Monopolies don't emerge. They are engineered. Then sold.

Jio Platforms closed October 23 with numbers no Indian IPO ever saw — ₹30,213 crore raised via 27 crore fresh shares at ₹1,119 upper band, ₹10.3 lakh crore valuation ($108.3 bn), 22.2 times subscribed, ₹7 lakh crore bids, 1.38 crore applications — first issue globally to cross 1 crore applications. Draft prospectus line is blunt: up to ₹27,500 crore for repayment of Reliance Jio Infocomm borrowings. Translation — retail investors subscribed 2.72 times are paying off the free-data years.

The free-data years killed everything else.

Phase 1: Keep The Public Network On Ventilator

BSNL paid ₹8,300 crore for BWA spectrum in 2010, surrendered it for cash because government wouldn't fund rollout. Airtel launched 4G in April 2012, Jio in September 2016 with pan-India 4G. BSNL's file for 4G moved in December 2017. Clearance came only after 1.8 lakh employees struck work for three days in 2018. Even then, spectrum came with condition — only indigenous stack, C-DoT core, Tejas RAN, TCS as integrator. While Jio built 97.5% coverage by 2019, BSNL users got 2.1 Mbps vs 8.7 Mbps on Airtel. Its own 4G equipment rotted in warehouses. The swadeshi 4G stack finally lit up September 2025 — when world was talking 5G Advanced. Today 98,000 towers radiate; private players operate 452,055 5G BTS.

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Phase 2: Make Data Cheaper Than Water

For 64 months — September 2016 to December 2021 — Jio offered free voice, data at ₹50/GB against cost ₹200/GB. TRAI simultaneously cut interconnect usage charge from 14 paise to zero, killing revenue for Airtel and Vi that depended on incoming call charges, handing Jio free calling advantage. Losses were funded by external capital — $20 billion in 2020 from Meta, Google, Silver Lake, KKR at $65 bn valuation. Industry ARPU crashed from ₹148 to ₹74. Airtel wrote off ₹32,000 crore, Vi debt hit ₹2.5 lakh crore, Aircel, RCom, Telenor, MTS, Videocon exited. Twelve operators became four. BSNL revenue halved from ₹32,000 crore in FY15 to ₹18,000 crore in FY20 with no budget support.

Phase 3: Collect Rent From The Victim

Supreme Court AGR order 2019 crystallised dues 2006-19 — Vodafone Idea ₹59,236 crore, Airtel ₹31,280 crore, BSNL ₹16,224 crore, Jio ₹631 crore. Private sector got 2021 relief — four-year moratorium, interest converted to equity, government now owns 49% of Vi. BSNL got bill — ₹3.22 lakh crore revival packages between 2019-23 — ₹69,000 crore, ₹1.64 lakh crore, ₹89,000 crore — but 70% went to AGR payments, spectrum charges, VRS for 78,000 staff, not towers. One set of rules writes off debt, other set extracts it.

The Blueprint of BSNL Murder

Cult Current Desk

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