4G launch in next 3-4 months once tower count hits 20,000: BSNL CMD

BSNL will officially launch 4G services in the next three to four months or after reaching 20,000 base transceiver stations (BTS), BSNL CMD Pravin Kumar Purwar said on Tuesday. A BTS is a fixed radio transceiver in any mobile network, most often in the form of a tower.

Speaking at the sidelines of an industry conclave here, Purwar said the state-run telco has already installed 3,000 BTS across five circles in North India - Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Uttar Pradesh West.

“We are working on making multiple hundred sites go live every day before the official launch,” he said.
After the northern states, the telco has chosen Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and Tamil Nadu, among other southern states, to be the first areas to receive 4G services, other officials had earlier told Business Standard.

The company has mapped out large parts of these states for tower installation. This includes more than 4,200 4G sites in Andhra Pradesh and Telangana.

Late Rollout

BSNL's plans to launch 4G services years after three private telecom service providers—Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea—rolled it out have repeatedly been delayed. BSNL officials had earlier insisted the latest deadline of December 2024 could be met as operational challenges were being quickly cleared.

The BSNL board and later a Group of Ministers had cleared a Rs 24,500 crore contract to a TCS-led consortium, which includes CDOT and Tejas Networks, a contract to provide 4G equipment for 1 lakh new telecom towers. Network gear for about Rs 13,000 crore, as well as third-party items and a 10-year annual maintenance contract (AMC), is also covered in the contract.

In June, the company issued an advance purchase order (APO) of around Rs 19,000 crore to TCS and government-run ITI Limited for the same. The company has begun offering free 4G SIM upgrades to its users in select circles. The upgrade from a 2G/3G SIM will also provide users with 4 GB of complimentary 4G data with three months of validity.

5G Plans

In all these circles, the company plans to quickly upgrade 4G services to 5G by June 2024. BSNL may begin advanced testing of 5G network equipment by February 2024, Business Standard had earlier reported. The Centre for Development of Telematics (CDOT) is working to ensure this.

The government first announced a Rs 69,000-crore revival package for BSNL and MTNL in October 2019. In 2022, it approved a second revival package for BSNL and MTNL amounting to Rs 1.64 trillion. The move led to BSNL’s authorised capital increasing to Rs 2.1 trillion, up from Rs 1.5 trillion. The Cabinet also approved allotting 4G and 5G spectrum for the company through equity infusion.

In June 2023, the Cabinet granted the telco Rs 89,047 crore as part of a third revival package. As a result of these efforts, the telecom firm has started earning operating profits since the financial year 2022. Its total debt has reduced from Rs 32,944 crore to Rs 22,289 crore.