Although BSNL plans to provide 5G services by August 2023, it is working on the government’s 4G saturation initiative. The 4G saturation initiative will provide high-speed broadband connections to 24,680 difficult, remote and unconnected towns or areas in the coming years. Besides this, the villages that use 2G or 3G will get 4G network under this project. This project has been executed by BSNL and has already provided contacts for passive infrastructure; however, it is still being finalized for the active infrastructure.
This initiative is expected to provide mobile connectivity in rural areas. This initiative will promote banking services, tele-education, telemedicine, e-government services and more through mobile broadband. In addition, it will generate employment in the areas.
It is worth noting that BSNL is also planning to install fiber optics in rural areas under the Bharat Net program. Under this program, BSNL has covered 1.9 lakh villages and plans to reach 2.2 lakh villages by 2023.
For those who don’t know, the government has also awarded a project to Reliance Jio and Airtel worth Rs 3,683 crore to launch or provide 4G services to discovered villages in India. The project will see Airtel install 1,083 towers in Jharkhand and Maharashtra, while Reliance Jio will install 3,696 towers. Airtel will install towers worth Rs 847.95 crore while Reliance Jio towers are close to Rs 2800 crore as per PTI report.
Why is 4G network deployment important to BSNL?
Even after completing 22 years in the Indian telecom industry, BSNL’s future only depends on 4G network, despite being the first operator to launch 3G services. However, various reports claim that the state telecom operator will launch 4G services in January 2023 in a phased manner.
The telecom operator has also approved the tender for Tata Consultancy Services, where the latter will help the operator launch services and maintain all sites in the country.
Furthermore, the telecom operator is expected to launch 5G services in 2023; However, before that, it is important to roll out 4G service as the company is expected to launch services based on Non-Standalone (NSA) mode. The NSA relies entirely on the 4G network and is less expensive than the standalone mode, which has been used by Reliance Jio.
BSNL 5G Plans
In addition to the 4G network, the state telecom operator is preparing to bring a 5G network to India next year. The company will upgrade 1.35 lakh 4G towers to offer 5G services and TCS will assist them in the upgrade procedure. In addition, the government has agreed to allocate 5G spectrum to the telecom operator, which also means there is a good chance that BSNL will provide 5G services next year.
The state telecom operator is working on two technologies at the same time. But, three private players have already established themselves in the 4G space and now two of them are launching 5G services in their circles. However, BSNL is known for offering affordable plans, so it would be interesting to see how it manages to attract users to its much-anticipated services.