The All Unions and Association of BSNL (AUAB) has requested the centre to direct the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to approve the state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL)’s proposal to upgrade 3G sites to 4G sites in order to launch 4G services. As per the group, this is the only decision that can revive the telco.
In July 2021, the management committee of BSNL board had approved the proposal to upgrade about 18,500 BTSs supplied by Nokia for Rs 5.5 billion.
The BSNL group in March 2021, had sought the Prime Minister Office’s (PMO) intervention to expedite its launch of 4G services through the upgrading of the existing network as well as accelerated the monetisation of BSNL’s assets to revive the company.
Further, BSNL has been reiterating that without a 4G network, it will lose out to private telecom companies who are already piloting their 5G network in the country across several states with their equipment partners.
BSNL expects 4G rollout within 10 months on successful completion of trials by homegrown gear makers while the network can be rolled out after 14 months from the said date if the proof of concept (PoC) gets completed within four months.
