According to Ashwini Vaishnaw, Union Minister of Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Railways, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) 4G network will be upgraded to 5G in five-seven months and rolled out across 135,000 telecom towers the telco has in India.
While speaking at an event organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the minister informed that BSNL has about 135,000 mobile towers across the country with a very strong presence in rural areas which are still not fully covered by the other telecom players. Telecom technology stack is going to be rolled out. It is a 4G technology stack which will be upgraded to 5G in a timeframe of five-seven months. The minister said that with the rollout of 5G across the BSNL network, the telco will become a major player in the telecom space and especially for the far-flung areas which would not be served by a typical market mechanism.
Further, speaking about encouraging innovation and startup ecosystem, Vaishnaw said that Indian Railways and the defence sector have started a model to support startups from the idea stage to proof-of-concept, and in some cases are giving a market or revenue stream for at least 3-4 years. He informed that the government is taking that model to the telecom space and will be increasing the telecom technology development fund from Rs 5 billion to Rs 40 billion per annum to encourage indigenous innovation.
He remarked that BSNL will become a very strong stabilising factor in the telecom space in India.
