State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is set to install an additional one lakh (100,000) 4G towers following the successful deployment of its first one lakh towers this month, said the Minister of State for Communications Pemmasani Chandrasekhar.
The minister, in an interview with TNIE, revealed that the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will soon seek Cabinet approval for the next phase of BSNL’s 4G expansion in the country. “After successfully installing 100,000 towers with optimal 4G equipment, we will approach the Cabinet and Prime Minister Narendra Modi to approve another 100,000 towers,” said the minister. “We also plan to increase BSNL’s cash flow, which will enable us to install more 4G and 5G equipment and to monetize BSNL’s assets.”
BSNL opted for indigenous 4G technology instead of foreign-made equipment used by private telecom service providers such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea. This is one of the key reasons the telecom operator is yet to roll out its commercial 4G and 5G services in the country. The company awarded a contract in May 2023 to a Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)-led consortium including Tejas Networks, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT)—India’s telecom technology development center, which developed the 4G core—and ITI Ltd, to provide 4G equipment for 100,000 new telecom towers. The contract also includes network gear worth about `13,000 crore, third-party components, and a 10-year annual maintenance contract (AMC).