Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) which is gearing up to launch its 4G services on pan-India basis, has no plans to increase its tariffs, Sandeep Govil, the company’s board director said.
He chaired a meeting in Chennai on Monday for the entire south zone to discuss the timelines for the commercial rollout of 4G services.
“Our tariffs will be competitive. There are no plans as of now to increase the tariffs,” Mr. Govil told reporters. BSNL has placed orders with Tata Consultancy Services and ITI Limited for the supply and commissioning of 4G indigenous core and 1 lakh 4G Base Transceiver Station (BTS) towers. A release said the total cost of the order is ₹19,000 crore. A consortium of firms -- TCS (for software support and system integration), CDOT (for core technology) and Tejas (for radio network) --was picked by BSNL for its 4G project.
“We will start receiving the equipment from September or October and we plan to commission one lakh BTS in one year,” Mr. Govil said. “The equipment we are procuring is 5G upgradeable. So immediately after launching 4G services, we will start rolling out 5G services in one year’s time all over India,” he said.
BSNL currently has about 70 lakh customers. In Tamil Nadu 8,000 BTS would be upgraded, while 1,500 new BTS will come up for the 4G rollout.
Besides, the government of India has approved a scheme for 4G mobile coverage of uncovered villages across India. Under the scheme, 431 villages have been allotted for Tamil Nadu circle which includes remote areas of Sathyamangalam forest, Kolli hills, Yercaud, Jawadhumalai among others.
With 19,722 mobile towers, 29,616 villages will be covered under the scheme. The project is expected to be completed by December.
