BSNL must meet 4G rollout target per day, says Scindia
Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is setting up a project-monitoring unit (PMU) for BSNL and its 4G rollout efforts, adding that the state-run telecom company must meet its daily targets.
Within the next 180 days, the government will announce all regulations and provisions of the new Telecom Act. “We have notified the Act at the end of last month and I promise you that within 180 days, which is our deadline, we will notify each and every rule, so that all of you can walk on that path with full confidence with the government,” Scindia said during the India Mobile Congress event in New Delhi on July 18.
He said India has become the largest, fastest-growing telecom market and the only country to have made a leap in technology in the last decade. India is working towards obtaining 127 key patents for 6G technology and will lead the world in this field.
Talking about BSNL, which is in the process of launching 4G services, the minister said monitoring units are being set up with the telecom company’s key vendor Tejas Networks, C-DoT, TCS and others. “…We are moving towards setting up one lakh RANs (radio access networks) which we need (for BSNL),” he said. The 4G network of BSNL is built using locally created technology. The minister said it would have been very easy for the company to use technology developed by others but it took the indigenous route. “…India should not only be a supplier of services, we should also be a supplier of products,” he said. The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) has developed its own 4G/5G stack and is deploying it with the help of BSNL, which has awarded a Rs 24,500 crore contract to a TCS-led consortium in 2023. The government has said the telco will launch 4G services by December 2024.
