According to the union minister of communications and development of northeastern region, State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will add another 50,000 to 60,000 mobile towers to strengthen its network, and the company’s operating profit is expected to grow in double digits in the current financial year.
He said BSNL has made its largest ever capital expenditure of Rs 200 billion in a single year towards building its 4G network, which will subsequently be upgraded to 5G.
He said the transition to 5G will not be as difficult as BSNL’s network is built on an indigenously developed Atmanirbhar 4G stack, and that additional mobile sites will need to be added with updates to the core network software. The minister said BSNL had 85.5 million subscribers in June 2024, and currently has 92.7 million subscribers.
Scindia said BSNL posted a quarterly profit of Rs 2.62 billion after a gap of 18 years.
