Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is going to launch 4G very soon in India. The state-run telecom company is now getting the equipment from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS). According to a FinancialExpress report, BSNL will be pre-ordering the equipment for 200 sites that will be used to launch 4G in the three districts of Punjab. These districts include Ferozepur, Amritsar, and Pathankot.
A government official told the publication that this is a part of the pilot project to launch BSNL's 4G. The final tender for TCS is yet to be approved by the government. Tejas Networks, owned by TCS, has already supplied equipment for about 50 sites for which the C-DoT (Centre for Development of Telematics) may deploy a software patch upgrade.
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The official also added that they are expecting to complete about 100 sites for the 4G launch by the middle of March. In case everything goes as planned, the commercial launch of BSNL's 4G will happen in April 2023. Earlier in a tweet, BSNL India had confirmed that they will launch 4G in the second half of 2023.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is expected to seek clearance from the Group of Ministers (GoM) by early March. Once that comes, a purchase order (PO) can be issued to TCS for the 4G equipment for over 1 lakh sites. BSNL expects that its revenues would grow by 20% once it launches 4G in India. The minister of state for communications Devusinh Chauhan, has also said that BSNL will turn profitable from the FY2026-27 because of the implementation of the revival package.
BSNL was awarded a revival package by the central government in 2022. The package was worth Rs 1.64 lakh crore, and it focuses on restructuring debt from the financial sheet and also helping with 4G and 5G rollout. BSNL will be using the kind of equipment that is also upgradable from 4G to 5G.
