BSNL’s much awaited 4G services were said to be rolled out by Diwali this year. However, it has been revealed that BSNL’s 4G services may be delayed further. What is the reason for this delay? A news collection about
In early 2022, India’s BSNL plans to use indigenous technology for its 4G services. As part of the Central Government’s “Make in India” initiative, BSNL decided to use indigenously developed technologies.
In the telecom sector, even with the arrival of 5G services, BSNL, a state-owned public sector company, offers only 3G services. 1.28 lakh crore was earmarked for telecom projects and public sector undertakings in the 2024 financial statement to improve BSNL services. Of this, a substantial amount was given to BSNL.
BSNL had awarded contracts worth Rs 19,000 crore to Tata Consultancy Services, Tejas Networks and state-owned C-DOT to deploy the upgradeable 4G network.
BSNL’s current cloud-based infrastructure powers its 4G network. BSNL said that the same will be used for 5G services as well.
Only 1000 towers have been built so far in the plan to build one lakh towers across India. The central government plans to allocate more than Rs 6000 crore to BSNL to meet the shortfall in capital expenditure of BSNL for providing 4G services.
100,000 towers across the country are expected to be completed by late 2025.
Last July, private telcos like Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea hiked their tariff plans by an average of 15 percent to 22 percent. Thus, within 15 days, around 2,50,000 customers switched to BSNL. Taking advantage of this unexpected change, BSNL 4G started to rapidly expand its services across the country.
BSNL aims to upgrade 3G services in the 2100 MHz band to 4G and use 700 MHz for improved coverage and capacity.
Even though BSNL’s net loss has narrowed to Rs 5,367 crore from Rs 8,161 crore, the company remains in dire financial condition.
In this case, the self-reliant India project also raises doubts as to whether BSNL is a hindrance to growth.
The Self Reliance India plan is said to restrict BSNL’s use of 4G or 5G equipment from international vendors. They say that if BSNL uses foreign equipment, then BSNL will provide 5G service.
Development of new indigenous technology, its testing and quality deployment activities are progressing rapidly. BSNL’s 4G and 5G rollout has been further delayed. Thus, it is known that the BSNL 4G service will be launched only in the month of June.
