Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has seen interest from three companies for rolling out its 5G SA (standalone) network in Delhi. This rollout will span across 1,876 sites in the national capital. It is worth noting that over 29 companies participated in the pre-bid meeting for BSNL's 5G tender, but only three have shown interest. These three companies include Tejas Networks, Lekha Wireless, and Galore Network. Tejas Networks is already a part of BSNL's 4G rollout and is providing the state-run telecom company with a home-grown 4G stack which is upgradable to 5G.
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As per a Communications Today report, a weak response to BSNL's 5G tender is because of the terms and conditions laid out in the tender. As per the T&C, the bidders need to incur the capital expenditure (capex) and the operational expenditure (opex). This is not the case with the 4G tender released by BSNL wherein the telco was paying the money to the selected bidders for the services.
With the 5G tender, BSNL wants to enter a revenue-sharing agreement with the bidders. So basically, the bidders will deploy the networks, and BSNL will market and sell to the customers. Here, a revenue split will be decided between BSNL and the bidders, where BSNL has asked for a minimum of 70% share.
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To offer 5G services, BSNL will utilise the 900 MHz and 3300 MHz bands to offer 5G SA services. Bidders will spend around Rs 500 crore on capex for deploying the core network and radio for BSNL. Initially, the goal is to roll out the services for 1 lakh subscribers, and also launch 5G FWA (fixed-wireless access) services alongside.
This will be a crucial phase for the Indian telecom industry, as success in rolling out 5G SA networks using homegrown tech can position India and its companies as key players in the global market for this technology which is currently dominated by a few players.
