State-run 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. Top government sources said the government has set a subscriber market share target of 25 percent for the state-run telco by the end of 2025.
“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,” the official told Moneycontrol on the condition of anonymity.
Another official said that the 4G core technology, currently powering BSNL’s 4G network, will be able to power the 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 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. The remaining 21,000 will be deployed by March next year, which means the government will achieve its target of deploying one lakh towers of a 4G network by March 2025.
BSNL has awarded contracts worth Rs 19,000 crore to Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tejas Networks, and government-owned ITI for deploying the 4G network, which can be upgraded to 5G.
The first official also refuted concerns about the supply chain, saying the deployment was on track.
The state-run telco on August 10 said it will roll out a 4G and 5G compatible over-the-air (OTA) and Universal SIM (USIM) platform, which will enable subscribers to choose their mobile numbers and replace SIMs without geographical restrictions.
Under new leadership, BSNL has been given a target of achieving a 25 percent subscriber market share by the end of 2025, the official said. Robert Jerard Ravi, who took charge as BSNL's CMD for six months, is prioritising the expedited rollout of 4G/5G to reduce subscriber churn and enhance service quality.
According to data by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), BSNL's market share has fallen to 7.4 percent, with a mobile subscriber base of 86.3 million as of May end.
However, the second official said that BSNL is seeing early signs of revival following the recent round of tariff hikes by private telecom operators, adding low-income and prepaid subscribers joining the state-run telecom, allowing it to curb the consistent net loss of customers for many months.
“Within 15 days of tariff hikes, 250,000 customers have ported to BSNL from other telcos. BSNL still offers mobile tariffs for low-income subscribers, which are cheaper than private telcos,” he added.
To monitor the progress of BSNL’s 4G rollout daily and to ensure it achieves the target by March 2025, the government is setting up a project management unit (PMU) for BSNL.
Last month, communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said he and the telecom secretary would personally monitor BSNL's daily targets.
The loss-making firm has been allocated Rs 3.2 trillion or Rs 3.2 lakh crore in three revival packages. In the Budget 2024-25, out of the total Rs 1.28 lakh allocation for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the government has set aside Rs 83,416 crore for BSNL for capital infusion for technology upgradation and restructuring of BSNL.
The Cabinet has allocated the budgetary funds from the company's already approved revival packages.
In FY24, BSNL reduced its net loss to Rs 5,367 crore from Rs 8,161 crore in FY23, primarily due to lower expenses, especially finance costs, and increased non-operating income. Revenue from operations grew by 1 percent to Rs 19,343.6 crore, falling short of the target of Rs 20,008 crore.
Notably, BSNL’s bigger private rivals - Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel— have concluded their pan-India 5G network deployment have already cornered 108 million and 90 million 5G subscribers, respectively. Vodafone Idea, on the other hand, is yet to rollout 5G and is currently in the process of placing orders to source equipment from various vendors.
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