Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will finally be able to roll-out 4G pan-India very soon. The state-run telco has received the nod from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to go ahead with its hybrid 4G rollout plan.
For the unaware, under the proposed hybrid 4G rollout plan, BSNL had recommended splitting its tender into two parts.
The first part contained 50,000 sites reserved exclusively for the Indian vendors, and the second part contained the rest of 50,000 sites reserved for global vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia, and more.
BSNL has received the nod from DoT to go ahead with this tender plan which comes as a major relief for the telco.
BSNL 4G Will Roll Out Soon in India
According to a Financial Express report, DoT has approved BSNL’s proposal because the telco had shared concerns about its survival if the 4G rollout didn’t happen soon.
The state-run telco was forced by the government to stick with Indian vendors for rolling out its 4G network. However, none of the Indian vendors had any experience in the field and did not have any proven technology to help BSNL rollout 4G fast.
If the telco had relied on the Indian vendors, it would have taken a lot of time to first generate a Proof of Concept (PoC) and then scale up production of equipment to help with network rollout. But the sad part is, telcos in India are already moving to 5G, and BSNL doesn’t have a lot of high paying customers to sustain long in its current condition.
Looking at this, DoT’s approval is a blessing for BSNL. Now, the state-run telco can go into the aggressive mode and implement its hybrid 4G plan to ensure a timely roll out of 4G services in India.
Indian companies can also participate in the sites reserved for foreign vendors if they can complete the trial of their technology successfully in time.
