BSNL to deploy Additional 23K BTS to Strengthen the 4G Network

The government-owned teleco BSNL is on its way to install an additional 23,000 BTS(Base Transceiver Station) to strengthen its homegrown 4G Technology. Currently, BSNL has deployed over 97,000 sites nationwide to provide reliable services. Most of the issues related to call drops, no signal, and no voice while calling have been fixed.

While addressing the media regarding the 5G upgradation of BSNL, the Minister of State for Communication, Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani, said that “We are diligently working on a testing project. Once it’s done, the upgrade from 4G to 5G won’t take that much time.”

Further, he said that BSNL has a decent 4G coverage, and the additional 23,000 BTS will boost the coverage & make it more reliable. TCS(Tata Consultancy Services) led consortium with TVS Logistics and other vendors has helped the BSNL to roll out its homegrown 4G technology.

Tejas Network, being a major hardware provider, has laid the foundation of the homegrown technology, making India one of the few nations that has its own technology and equipment. The path was more of a roller coaster initially; there were a lot of glitches and network issues, however, most of them have been fixed.

Right now, BSNL(Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) is focusing on expanding its network and improving its network quality. Besides these, the telco had also released an advance purchase order(APO) of more than 18,000 sites.

Pemmasani also added that the current PM Modi-led government is committed to saving the public teleco to have healthy competition in the market and make it profitable again. However, the worrying thing about the progress is that while the private players have already rolled out their 5G throughout the whole nation, BSNL is still struggling to expand its 4G network coverage.

Only time will reveal whether the State-owned PSU will flourish or it will be a disaster like Air Asia.