BSNL is targeting a 20% market share of the country’s overall mobile market by the end of 2024
Indian state-run telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will launch its 5G services within six to eight months after completing the March 2025 pan-India 4G rollout deadline, local news service Moneycontrol reported, citing sources with knowledge of the matter.
“March 2025 is our internal deadline for a full-fledged 4G network availability in the country. We aim to have 5G switched on within six to eight months. The existing 4G sites will be upgraded to 5G with minor card replacement and a software upgrade,” a BSNL official said.
Another BSNL official said that the 4G core technology currently supporting the carrier’s 4G network will also be used to power the telco’s future 5G network. “It is a cloud-based architecture and will work with any hardware. The servers handling the core will remain common. The telecom minister recently did a 5G call with the same core on a live 4G network using network hardware in Haryana, which connected to systems at C-DoT’s Delhi premises,” he said.
BSNL has already deployed 15,000 4G towers across circles such as Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, UP West and Haryana and plans to increase this number to 80,000 by the end of October 2024. The remaining 21,000 4G sites will be deployed by March next year, which means the government will achieve its target of deploying 100,000 4G towers by March 2025.
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 previous press reports, while the government recently set a new target of 25% of the market by end-2025. Over the last several years, BSNL has lost market share to rival telcos Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel due to the lack of extended 4G coverage across the country.
According to the latest available data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), BSNL’s market share has fallen to 7.4% with a mobile subscriber base of 86.3 million as of the end of May.
The government of India recently announced it will set up a project management unit (PMU) for BSNL, through which the carrier will be monitored on a daily basis with regard to its ongoing 4G deployment.
The PMU will be set along with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tejas Networks and the government’s Center for Development of Telematics (C-DOT), with which BSNL is currently deploying its 4G network using indigenous technologies.
The state-run telecom operator has been conducting trials in Punjab to test the capability of the Indian-developed 4G technology. The telco initially launched 4G services in the North Indian regions of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand and western Uttar Pradesh, using indigenous network technology developed in collaboration with Tata Consultancy Services and the C-DOT. The state-run telco has received 4G and 5G frequencies from the government as a part of a relief package.
