Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has a target to reach 1 lakh 4G towers by mid-2025. The timeline for this was supposed to be by the end of the financial year 2024-25. However, now it has been pushed slightly ahead. According to a statement from the Indian telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, BSNL will roll out 1 lakh 4G towers by mid-2025. This would mean that the state-run telco would achieve its set target in the financial year 2025-26.
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The last update came several weeks back which said that over 25000 towers for 4G have been installed. Earlier, BSNL was said to deploy 75000 sites by Diwali 2024. However, that seems a little far-fetched now. India is attempting to roll out an indigenous 4G network. This has not been done by any other Indian telecom operator before. BSNL is the first company to attempt this. While Jio has built its own 5G stack, its 4G still came from outside vendors including Samsung.
BSNL will roll out indigenous 4G, and then will also look to upgrade that to 5G in less time. The tests for 5G are already ongoing. Much recently, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) shared an image where the MTNL network was delivering 5G to a smartphone. Note that MTNL only operates in Delhi and Mumbai. Also, the mobile networks of MTNL are handled by BSNL only.
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BSNL's 4G stack is coming from a TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) led consortium including the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) and Tejas Networks. India is not just looking at 4G and 5G but is also trying to get a decent share of patents in 6G. BSNL is rolling out 4G and wants to regain its lost revenue market share in the short-term. But since the 4G rollout will complete around 2025 mid, it would likely be too late for the company to start making large strides to rope customers in.
