Last year, TCS and ITI secured an advance purchase order from BSNL to set up 100,000 4G sites across India
Indian company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is currently installing large data centers in the four regions of India as part of its 4G deal with state-owned operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), according to local press reports.
“This is going to be the most complex deployment with two large data ceners in each of the four zones. Beyond this, in each telecom circle, we will deploy 30 data centers depending on load requirements of that circle. So, it’s 38 deployments in total and we are working with hardware supply partners to complete the implementation by June,” TCS’s COO, Ganapathy Subramaniam, was quoted as saying.
In May of last year, TCS said that it had secured an advance purchase order from BSNL to set up 100,000 4G sites across India. TCS will be responsible for fulfilling 80% of this purchase order, while compatriot firm ITI will be in charge of the remainder.
The TCS-led consortium, which is responsible for end-to-end planning, design, installation, commissioning and optimization of the mobile network, includes the government’s Center for Development of Telematics (C-D0T) and local telecom equipment maker Tejas Networks.
The core of BSNL’s 4G network is indigenous to India, developed by the C-DoT. Radio equipment for the 4G networks is being supplied by Tejas Networks, with Tata Consultancy Services acting as the system integrator. The Indian authorities had said that only Indian telecoms vendors will be allowed to supply equipment for state-run telcos BSNL and MTNL’s 4G and 5G projects, as part of the country’s efforts to reduce dependence on international providers.
C-DoT has previously conducted successful trials of its indigenous 4G core in BSNL’s commercial network in Chandigarh and Ambala.
BSNL recently said it has already activated 3,500 4G base transceiver stations (BTS) across the country. These 4G sites were deployed in a number of states including Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh West.
BSNL highlighted that these 3,500 sites offer 4G services on both a commercial and trial basis, adding that BSNL aims to launch full commercial 4G services nationwide soon.
A BSNL executive noted that commercial services could be launched once the telco’s 4G network reached 20,000 active base stations at a national level. BSNL previously said it expects to provide 4G services nationwide through the deployment of 100,000 base stations.
BSNL is targeting a 20% market share of the country’s overall mobile market by the end of 2024 by accelerating the rollout of its 4G network, according to recent press reports.
