BSNL May See Foreign Vendors Pitching in 5G Network: Report

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL), a state-run telecom operator, is planning to roll out 5G in the near future after it completes the target of reaching 1 lakh 4G sites. BSNL’s 4G is completely homegrown, as mandated by the government. However, with the 5G, it could be a slightly different scenario. The growth of BSNL was decelerated when the government said that it could only take the equipment from the Indian vendors. Since there wasn’t any vendor with proven technology, there was a whole PoC (proof of concept) curve which allowed the private telcos to take a major lead. BSNL is now rolling out 4G when two of the three private telcos in India have almost completed their 5G rollout.

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BSNL Could Award Network Gear Contracts for 5G to Foreign Vendors

That may not be the case with 5G. As per an ET Report, BSNL could include the foreign vendors as a part of its $2 billion network gear order for 5G. Vendors such as Nokia and Ericsson already have a majority of the market share in India after the government asked the Chinese vendors to be phased out of the networks.

Around 50% of the network gear order could be reserved for the foreign vendors, while the remaining 50% will be for the Indian vendors. BSNL will roll out 5G SA (standalone) nationwide. But there’s also the question of what will happen to the 4G sites which can be upgraded to 5G NSA faster and at a lower cost.