Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has installed 12,000 4G towers across the country and aims to begin nationwide 4G services by the end of 2024 and 5G services as soon as early 2025.
As per the PSU telco, 4G sites are up in all four metro cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai. Sites are also active in most of the state capitals including Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Jaipur, Lucknow, Raipur, and Chandigarh. The telco is also trying to convert the majority of existing base transceiver stations (BTS) in hill states such as Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and those in North East-India into 4G capable ones by end-September 2024.
As of end-March 2024, BSNL operated 67,340 towers across the country and had leased out 12,502 of these towers to private players.
The company originally intended to transition its 4G services to 5G by June 2024. However, after receiving 5G network equipment from the Centre for Development of Telematics (CDOT), BSNL has just commenced its testing phase.
Under the Union Budget 2024, the government has allocated Rs 829.16 billion for BSNL. Most of this funding will be directed towards BSNL’s network expansion plans and equipment purchases.
