Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been fighting its own battle for rolling out 4G when the private operators are ready for 5G. The state-owned telco is finally not far from realising its goal of delivering India its first homegrown 4G network. From the core network to the complete equipment, BSNL’s 4G network across India will be powered by homegrown technology.
BSNL has already placed an order worth Rs 550 crores to TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) for procuring 40W radios for 6000 4G sites across India. The specific locations that the telco will target for this are unknown, but BSNL will go for the high-potential areas where it can earn more from customers to make a quick return on investment.
BSNL’s desi 4G network can easily make a huge impact in the Indian market.
BSNL’s 4G Network Can be a Fresh Option for Frustrated Consumers
Look, the private Indian telcos’ aren’t necessarily bad in what they are doing. It’s not an easy task to handle a market with a billion people looking to consume services. Especially when there are only three players.
Thus, it is hard for telecom operators to keep everyone happy. They can surely try, but it is quite an impossible task. No one can keep everyone happy. The thing with each of these operators is that all of them have similar offerings. While it is wrong to ignore the Vi Hero Unlimited benefits offered by Vodafone Idea Limited (VIL), there’s also the fact that Airtel and Jio offer better and more consistent mobile network experience.
Right now, if you are an Indian and you want to consume 4G network services, your options are limited to Airtel, Jio and Vi. It can feel very suffocating to a consumer if all you have had is a bad experience with all the private telcos over the years. Whom do you turn to? There’s no other option.
BSNL, with its homegrown 4G, will be the new option for these frustrated consumers. No one can say how the experience with BSNL will be right now, but it will be something new. All the users frustrated with the private telcos will have BSNL to look forward to.
BSNL can offer some respite to congested networks of the private telcos. The state-run telco might aggressively add new users once its 4G networks are out across the nation. BSNL plans to install over 1.12 lakh new sites for the 4G rollout in India. The initial order of 6000 sites is just the start which will be followed by another order for 6000 sites and then the remaining 1 lakh sites.
What’s interesting is that a major C-DoT (Centre for Development of Telematics) official has also given Indian users a hope to look forward to BSNL’s 5G. BSNL was also secretly working on 5G NSA while working on 4G.
Things must move fast for BSNL in order for the state-run telco to make any sort of impact on the 4G market. There’s still a long way for 4G to go in India, and if BSNL plays its cards right, the lack of options in India could work in its favour.
