As part of the pilot for 4G, BSNL has deployed 200 sites in three districts of Punjab
Indian state-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) plans to initially provide 4G services in high-revenue telecom circles, local press reported.
Currently, Kerala, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Punjab are among the high-revenue-earning circles for BSNL.
“We are witnessing subscriber churn because of the absence of 4G services. The company will issue the purchase order for 100,000 tower sites to the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)-led consortium in a week,” a BSNL executive reportedly said.
As part of the pilot for 4G, BSNL has deployed 200 sites in three districts of Punjab – Ferozepur, Pathankot and Amritsar. BSNL will provide 4G services via the 2.1 GHz spectrum band.
Last week, a group of ministers approved the proof-of-concept by the TCS consortium for BSNL using an indigenous technology stack, and gave the company the approval to issue the purchase order. ”The plan is to prioritize high-revenue circles first for launching 4G. In Kerala, which is the largest circle for BSNL, the subscribers have high purchasing power and therefore they want BSNL to launch 4G and we are on track to provide the services soon,” the executive said.
According to previous reports, BSNL expects to cover all telecom circles in India with its 4G services by the end of its upcoming financial year, which ends in March 2024.
In January, the country’s Minister of Railways, Communications and Electronics and Information Technology Ashwini Vaishnaw, had said that BSNL could launch 5G technology in March 2024. Vaishnaw also clarified that initially, BSNL’s 5G network will be based on the NonStandalone (NSA) architecture.
In December 2022, BSNL had asked the Indian government for more spectrum for the future deployment of 5G technology.
BSNL is likely to launch 5G services in 600 MHz, 3.3 GHz and 26 GHz bands, according to previous reports. These spectrum bands have been reserved by the Department of Telecommunication and after the 4G launch, all sites will be upgraded to 5G.
Currently, both Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm offer 5G networks in all major cities across the country. While Jio is offering standalone 5G technology (SA), Airtel has opted for non-standalone 5G technology (NSA).
Meanwhile, Vodafone Idea is in the final stage of negotiations with banks to secure funding, which will be key for the launch of its 5G network infrastructure in the country, according to recent reports.
A senior official from the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) explained that Vodafone Idea is likely to secure funding by June, which will enable the launch of 5G services that same month.
Local press reported that Finnish vendor Nokia was in talks with Vodafone Idea to supply 5G networking equipment. Nokia already supplies 5G gear to Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio Infocomm.
