BSNL 4G Will Have to Wait as telco Considers 4G Trials Extension

According to reports, BSNL 4G will see further delays as the state-owned telco can extend 4G trials till 15th January.

BSNL 4G Can See Further Delays

After the TCS-led consortium won the race to roll out BSNL 4G, the telco and the consortium have had issues. This comes as the Minister of State for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan, informed the Parliament that BSNL will roll out 4G by September 2022.

As the sources report, the TCS-led consortium has not demonstrated 4G with the 40-watt radio that the telco had asked for in the EoI. One source had said, "it seems that trials may have to be further extended by January 15". The issue is nothing new. In a letter sent to the consortium in October, BSNL said, “it is requested to deploy the PoC equipment in accordance with the conditions of the expression of interest (EoI)”. However, so far, the consortium has only asked for extension in the 4G testing.

Notably, the telco had earlier extended the trials by two months to 31st December. This extension, if it happens, will become a second extension in three months. The government had initially targeted a completion date of October 31, but back that, the consortium of TCS, Tejas Networks, and C-DoT had not installed the requested equipment.

Notably, the consortium has been running the trials for BSNL 4G in Ambala and Chandigarh. However, since Tata Group recently bought a 43.35% stake in Tejas for a sum of Rs 1,884 crore, the consortium practically consists of only Tata and C-DoT. The MoS for Communications reported that the state-owned telco expects incremental revenue of about Rs. 900 crore from the 4G rollout. Therefore, a 4G rollout has to happen soon for BSNL. The telco had targets to upgrade 13,533 2G/3G sites across South and West Zones for about Rs. 567 crore. However, the move, which would result in an increase in revenue from these critical zones, was rejected by the board.