Report, Telecom News, ET Telecom

NEW DELHI: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited ((BSNL) has awarded a Rs 550-crore contract to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for setting up 6,000 4G sites across India, Financial Express reported.

Initially, BSNL with TCS will deploy 4G sites at locations that have a “high revenue potential” and where the “infrastructure is 4G-ready”, followed by a pan-India rollout, the report added.

The telecom PSU plans to install about 1.12 lakh sites across the country for rolling out its fourth-generation network services, telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

“I am happy to inform you that the 4G telecom network is ready for roll out soon and it is developed in India by Indian engineers and scientists. Our development of 4G network is being appreciated worldwide and it has a core network, radio network with full telecom equipment,” Vaishnaw said during Question Hour.

BSNL’s 4G services rollout has been delayed by about two years as the telecom company has faced hurdles along the way.

In 2020, BSNL had to cancel a tender due to accusations of restrictive conditions from domestic firms. After that, the government asked the telco to utilise homegrown equipment only, following which it floated an Expression of Interest (EoI) for local firms to enable them to demonstrate their capabilities in running a 4G network.

Following this, the Mumbai-based TCS-backed consortium was shortlisted to undertake field trials in Ambala and Chandigarh to demonstrate next-generation telecom network to be deployed at state-driven telco, following the withdrawal of rival consortiums led by L&T, HFCL, and Tech Mahindra.

At an industry event by ETTelecom, an official of the Centre of Development for Telematics (C-DoT) said BSNL will launch its commercial 4G services along with fifth-generation or 5G network in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode by August this year.

“While we were doing our proof of concept (PoC), we were also working on 5G. As far as the 5G NSA is concerned, we will launch the BSNL network by August 2022. So, they can really start service, it will be 4G plus 5G,” Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director & Chairman of C-DoT had said, adding that the 5G NSA core will be ready by Independence Day this year.

BSNL, in fact, has sharply lost its market share to private telecom operators in the absence of 4G services in recent years.

As per the latest subscriber data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), BSNL and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) held a market share of only 10.24% while private telcos held 89.76% share at the end of January 2022.

To recall, the Cabinet in October 2019 had approved the rescue plan for BSNL and MTNL worth Rs 70,000-crore that included a voluntary retirement scheme (VRS), monetisation of assets and allocation of fourth generation or 4G airwaves, and a merger between the two companies.

The merger, though, has been deferred now due to financial reasons, including the high debt of MTNL.