The members of Democratic Youth Federation of India (DYFI) staged a protest in front of a BSNL office in Coimbatore on Tuesday urging the Central government to grant 4G and 5G licenses to the telecom service provider. So far, the government has not provided the financial allocation or technical support for providing 4G services to BSNL. As of now, it is giving 5G licenses to only private telecom service providers. Thus, it is alleged that the government marginalizes the State-owned PSU to favor private players.

This marginalization comes at a time when people’s reliance on mobile data increased during the pandemic, where online education and work from home has become a new norm, the DYFI mentioned. And, the private telecom service providers have capitalized on the opportunity by increasing the data charges. The increasing data charges by private players had burdened the customers, many of whom are facing salary cuts, due to the pandemic.

This was where the people felt the need for BSNL’s services, the DYFI contended and urged the government to support BSNL and also rein in the private telecom service providers. DYFI’s district secretary K.S. Kanagaraj led the protest.