The minister said that 4G network in all uncovered villages will lead to socio-economic transformation and bridge digital divides.
"The TCS-led consortium has been given an order worth Rs 550 crore to deploy 6,000 sites for 4G services," a senior BSNL official said. The deal was signed on Thursday, another source said.
The contract is part of 14 deals under ‘Tipping Point’ announced by NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine at the virtual fall Lunar Surface Innovation Consortium meeting on October 14.
The telco has deployed LTE 900 technology using spectrum in 900 Mhz band in the state for increased 4G availability inside homes and offices.
State-run telecom firm BSNL plans to roll out 4G services across India by the end of this year with an investment of about Rs 25,000 crore.
Sunil Mittal expects that Airtel's plan to completely drop roaming charges, will result in increase of usage.
"Reliance Jio in meeting with Telecom Minister (Manoj Sinha) has committed to invest 45,000 crore mobile towers in next 6 months to further strengthen its network. The company has said that it has plans to invest Rs 1 lakh crore over a period of 4 years and the new towers are part of this investment," an official source told PTI.
With this, Vodafone will become the second player offering 4G services to customers in Delhi-NCR after Bharti Airtel.
Airtel 4G is available to customers across a range of smart devices, including mobile phones, dongles, 4G hotspots and Wi-Fi dongles, the company said in a statement here.
On a yearly basis, IDC expects 2015 to post a higher single-digit growth over 2014 as the commercial segment drives growth, especially through government and education projects. Consumer market outlook appears to be stagnant, IDC said.
ZTE has touted its "pre-5G" technology as providing faster speeds on 4G network. It sees it as intermediate step between current 4G technology and 5G, the next generation of networks that the wireless industry is hoping to have up and running by 2020.
Africa's rapid telecoms expansion has come to symbolize the continent's economic growth, with the World Bank estimating a 10 percent increase in broadband coverage could add 1.4 percentage points to economic output.
Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Industries Limited has plans to invest USD 10 billion on 4G network of its subsidiary Infotel Broadband (IBSL), one of its vendors 'Spirit DSP' said today.