BSNL 4G: Nationwide rollout to commence by September 2022

The Minister of State for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan, has informed the Parliament that BSNL 4G will roll out by September 2022.

BSNL 4G Within Reach At Last

The MoS for Communications also reported that the state-owned telco expects incremental revenue of about Rs. 900 crore from the 4G rollout. BSNL, right now, has more than 24 million users, and those users have had to wait more than 5 years for a 4G rollout.

In October, telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw became one of the first people to make a call over the BSNL 4G trial network, as the telco told TCS to remain compliant with the conditions of the PoC. On the day, K Rajaraman, telecom secretary, had initiated an IP video call to the minister. The call also demonstrated data browsing and video streaming on the trial network. On the same day, officials, including BSNL Chairman PK Purwar and C-DoT Executive Director R. Upadhyaya, visited the PoC sites.

Rajkumar Upadhyay, executive director, and Board chairman, C-DoT had earlier said, “this (4G deployment) will be historical, and we are confident that with necessary support from the Department of Telecommunications in line with the Atmanirbhar vision, we will be able to not only fulfill BSNL’s current needs but can compete worldwide with our proven technology”.

Notably, C-DoT is already testing its core, with Tejas Networks’ radio and other software components from TCS in Ambala and Chandigarh. Upadhyay also added that given the firm’s network scalability, it has a clear roadmap to upgrade BSNL’s network. He said that the companies will upgrade BSNL 4G to BSNL 5G NSA by 2022. And by 2023, the network will become standalone. However, the telco had already mandated upgradability from 4G to 5G to the network suppliers.

For the majority of 2021, the telco has been working on its 4G network with a consortium led by TCS. So far, testing has gone smoothly, with only a couple of regulatory issues. In a financial statement presented to the Parliament, as of September 30, 2021, BSNL and MTNL's shares were worth Rs. 1,33,952 crore and Rs. 3,556 crore, respectively. The same financial statement read the total liabilities of the two telcos as being worth Rs. 85,721 crore and Rs. 30,159 crore, respectively.