BSNL pan-India 4G launch pushed to Dec, employees’ union seeks Vi network usage

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd’s pan-India 4G service launch will get pushed to December due to delays by vendor Tata Consultancy Services Ltd (TCS) to install 4G equipment, its management told the employees’ union last week, prompting the state-run telecom operator’s workers to ask the Centre to allow the company to temporarily use rival Vodafone Idea’s 4G network.

In a letter to telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, BSNL’s employees’ union has asked the government to permit the use of Vodafone Idea’s 4G network on the grounds that the Centre is the largest shareholder in the debt-laden company, and the measure could help BSNL stop the exodus of customers and turn the carrier around, at a time when rivals Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have started pan-India 5G services.

“Under the circumstances, we request that the Government of India, by utilising its status as the largest shareholder in Vi (Vodafone Idea), may kindly ensure that BSNL is allowed to immediately provide 4G service to its customers, by utilising the 4G network of Vi. This will only be a temporary measure, till BSNL’s 4G network is commissioned by TCS,” P Abhimanyu, general secretary, BSNL employees’ union, said in the letter.

BSNL was earlier set to launch pan-India 4G services by October this year, but with the changed timeline, the employees’ union has cautioned that delivery and installation of 4G equipment by TCS was getting ‘inordinately delayed.’

Queries to BSNL and the ministry of communications did not elicit a response till press time. The current rules permit sharing of spectrum and active infrastructure, but limited to antenna, feeder cable, Node B, Radio Access Network (RAN) and transmission systems. The telecom regulator, TRAI, was till late last yeat evaluating recommendations for sharing of core network elements, the consultation for which it had begun in January 2023.

TCS did not repsond to queries sent by Mint. The Tata Group company led the consortium which was awarded an advance purchase order worth ₹15,000 crore for installing 4G sites across the country by BSNL in May last year. The consortium includes telecom gear maker Tejas Networks, which was majority acquired by the Tata Group in 2021 and government-backed C-DoT, which will provide the required radio sites, equipment and technology for the large scale 4G deployments.

“We learn that the 4G equipment of the TCS have not completed the field trials till today. Our genuine apprehension is that the commissioning of BSNL’s 4G network by TCS may get even more delayed,” the union said in its letter. The lack of 4G services across all parts of the country was driving customers to port out of BSNL, which has further hurt the financial revival of the country’s fourth-largest telecom service provider.

BSNL intends to put up 100,000 4G sites throughout India. It has already set up 4G infrastructure in about 200 sites in Punjab and conducted trials of the locally-developed telecom technology stack.

Vaishnaw recently said that BSNL will start 4G and 5G services in 2024, as part of the ₹1.64 trillion revival package which was approved by the government in July 2022. It included infusing fresh capital for upgrading BSNL services, allocating 4G spectrum by equity infusion of ₹44,993 crore, de-stressing its balance sheet, and augmenting the fibre network by merging Bharat Broadband Nigam Limited (BBNL) with BSNL. The plan also included financial support by equity infusion of ₹22,471 crore for capex and viability gap funding claim of ₹13,789 crore. A sovereign guarantee to BSNL to raise long-term bonds for an amount of ₹22,828 crore for debt restructuring was also part of the package.

In this year’s interim budget, the government has earmarked ₹52,937 crore for capital infusion into BSNL to help it offer 4G and 5G services.