NEW DELHI, May 1 -- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) has set an ambitious target of increasing its average revenue per user (ARPU) by almost 50% to Rs.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% y-o-y 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 Rs.101 in FY26 from Rs.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 Rs.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 Rs.150 would require almost 50% revenue growth from FY26 levels if the subscriber base remains stable, which looks ambitious without a improvement in network....