Andrew Bonwick
Vice President of Product Development at Relm Insurance
Madhav Sheth
CEO of Ai+ Smartphone
Stephen Rose
CEO Render Networks


Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has been struggling for years now to launch 4G. While it was expected to be launched in early 2023, it has now been pushed ahead to the second half of 2023. If there are any more delays, the 4G launch will go to 2024. BSNL is facing delays because it is launching 4G using homegrown technologies. But the delays have hurt the business a lot, and in the coming months, more and more customers will be shifting to 5G in India, which means the impact that BSNL’s 4G could have would start diminishing. Because it would take BSNL at least around 18 to 24 months to reach most of India with its homegrown 4G, the more delays there are, the more useless the 4G launch would become.
Just like 3G is not important right now, in the next five years, 4G will become less relevant. While 4G would be more important than 3G in context, its potential to generate impactful revenues for the operators would be gone. Thus, BSNL will have to go about its business with a disruptive strategy or else all the money and time poured into the 4G launch will not amount to anything.
Read More – Experience: Airtel Home Delivery of SIM and Doorstep KYC
BSNL has become a sad story for the Indian telecom sector. The company, which has so much potential, is not delivering at all. One of the reasons is that it is run by the government. It is not the fault of any single government that BSNL is in a rough position right now, but it is a collective failure on the part of the management as well as the government to raise the telco to a point where it could have been one of the leading telecom operators in the country.