Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a state-run telecom company in India is relatively late with its 5G. It's not even late by a few months here, the telecom company is late by several years compared to what Jio and Airtel have done. BSNL has launched 4G in over 97,000 sites across the nation, and is looking to add more in the coming months and years. However, there's no clear timeline for the launch of 5G. For 5G, users will likely have to wait quite long here. However, that's not really a problem. BSNL's 4G is still expanding, and at this moment, when the private telecom operators are increasing the price of their 4G plans, BSNL can make a huge difference with cheaper 4G tariffs.
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Most working professionals and students in India don't need 5G mobile networks all the time. They are already connected to high-speed fiber connections from the private telecom companies and local internet service provideres (ISPs). The state-run telecom company has been slowly adding new users. It is not only the overall subscriber base, but also the active user base which is growing. This is something Vodafone Idea can't say for itself.
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For 5G, according to previous reports, BSNL is likely to deploy 5G SA (standlone) in operational expenditure (opex) model. As for the already deployed 4G sites, they can be upgraded to 5G with a software push. The telecom gear supplied by the Tejas Networks is 5G ready. This means that just like the private telcos, BSNL can offer 5G NSA (non-standalone) to the users initially. Later on, the company can work on expanding 5G SA in every part of the country.
That said, the priority of the telco should be 4G. This is what is missing for the customers, and is still very far from reaching every corner of the country.
