State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), India’s fourth-largest telecom operator, has ruled out any near term increase in tariffs. The company will focus on service quality to retain customers gained from rivals in recent months.

“We can say for certain that BSNL will not be raising tariffs shortly,” said Robert Ravi, chairman and managing director of BSNL.

The decision comes as larger competitors — Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea — recently implemented tariff hikes.

BSNL has gained market share, adding 2.9 million mobile subscribers in July alone. The company has a customer base of 88.5 million, representing 7.5 per cent of India’s total mobile subscribers.

BSNL has launched a series of new services, including spam protection, automated SIM kiosks and direct-to-device connectivity.

The PSU has also partnered the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing to provide low-latency 5G connectivity for mining operations.

The new services, launched by communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Tuesday, aim to improve customer experience and attract new subscribers.

The spam-blocking solutions automatically filter out phishing attempts and malicious SMS, creating a safer communication environment.

Automated SIM kiosks allow users to purchase, upgrade, port or replace SIMs on a 24x7 basis, leveraging UPI or QR-enabled payments with seamless KYC integration and multi-lingual access.

India’s first direct-to-device connectivity solution converges satellite and terrestrial mobile networks to deliver reliable connectivity.