AT a time when the private telecom companies are speedily rolling out their 5G service, BSNL has not even rolled out its 4G service. As the public sector telecom company is lagging behind in providing high speed data service, customers are leaving the company in large numbers. In 2022 alone, 77 lakh customers have left BSNL. It is at this juncture, two important announcements have been made by the government, regarding the future of the BSNL. The first one is regarding BSNL’s 4G and 5G services. The second one is about the third revival package to BSNL. Let us look into the details.

The telecom minister, Ashwini Vaishnaw has made some announcements regarding BSNL’s 4G and 5G services, which are published in the Economic Times dated May 24, 2023. The minister has made two points. The first point is that, “BSNL has started rolling out 4G networks with 200 sites and after a three-month trial, it will launch an average of 200 sites per day.” The second point made by the minister is that, “the 4G network of BSNL will be upgraded to 5G by November-December.”

The statements made by the minister unfailingly give an impression to the people that, BSNL is going to start its 4G service very soon and that it will start providing 5G service by November-December this year. These are nothing but utterly misleading statements. The fact of the matter is that, BSNL will be in a position to start its 4G service only in October, 2024 !

This is because, the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), from which BSNL has been mandated to procure its 4G equipments, has not even started supplying the equipments. In fact, the 4G equipments, said to have been indigenously manufactured by the TCS, are still undergoing field level trials at Amritsar, Ferozpur and Pathankot. It is expected that it will take another three months for these field level trials to get completed. Only when these field level trials are successfully completed, TCS will be in a position to manufacture and supply the entire 4G equipments to BSNL.

It is reliably learnt that the TCS will start supplying 4G equipments to BSNL only from October, 2023. It is further learnt that the TCS will supply 4G equipments to BSNL, at the rate of 200 sites per day. Thus, the TCS is expected to complete the supply and installation of 4G equipments to BSNL not before October, 2024. It means, BSNL cannot start its pan-India level 4G service before October, 2024.

By the time when BSNL starts its 4G service, customers would have massively left BSNL. Launching of 4G service by BSNL, after the exodus of its customers is nothing but ‘closing the stable after the horse has bolted’. When this being the fact, it is amusing that, the minister has declared, “the speed at which BSNL will deploy (read 4G equipments), you will be surprised.” (Economic Times dated May 24, 2023) 

GOVERNMENT CREATES ROADBLOCKS
The minister has made grossly misleading statements, perhaps with the view to cover-up the damage that the government has done to BSNL. It is an undeniable fact that, BSNL could have launched its 4G service at least two years back, through software upgradation of its existing 3G equipments into 4G equipments. But, this did not happen since BSNL was not permitted by the government to carry out this upgradation. In this way, the government has done a very big damage to BSNL. This has been done, obviously to stop BSNL from launching its 4G service. By doing so, the government has successfully handicapped BSNL from putting up an effective competition to the private companies.   

In April 2020, BSNL floated a tender to procure 1 lakh 4G BTSs (Base Transceiver Stations) from global vendors, for launching its 4G service. Again, the government arm-twisted BSNL to cancel this tender. The government firmly told BSNL that it should not procure 4G equipments from foreign vendors. It is a fact that, Jio, Airtel and Vodafone Idea have procured their 4G and 5G equipments only from foreign vendors. Even BSNL’s 2G and 3G equipments are procured only from foreign vendors. When this being the fact, why has the government stopped BSNL from procuring 4G equipments from foreign vendors? The only intention of the government is to stop BSNL from launching its 4G service, so that it cannot effectively compete with the private companies.

MINISTER’S CHEST-THUMPING
It is already three years since BSNL’s tender to procure 4G equipments was forcibly cancelled by the government. Had the tender not been cancelled by the government, by this time, BSNL would have launched its 4G service. It was pompously announced that, the desi company, the TCS, would supply 4G equipments to BSNL. But, even after the lapse of two years, the TCS has not even completed the field level trial of its equipments. 

Under these circumstances, the minister has bombastically announced that the BSNL would start its 5G service in November-December, 2023. The Economic Times has quoted the minister as saying, “Very soon, somewhere around November-December, with a very small software adjustment this will become 5G.” The minister has also proudly claimed that, gone are the days when India used to sign deals for technology transfer. He stated that India will stand along with the world in 5G and take the lead in 6G. But, what the minister has not stated is that, the government is intending to make Reliance Jio and Airtel to take the lead in 6G, but not the public sector BSNL.

THIRD REVIVAL PACKAGE
On June 7, 2023, the cabinet approved the third revival package of Rs 89,047 crore, for BSNL. This third revival package is purely for the allotment of 5G spectrum to BSNL. Certainly, this is to be welcomed. At the same time, the announcement of the third revival package unfailingly makes one to think as to what is the intention of the government in allotting 5G spectrum to BSNL, when it is creating hurdles in the launching of 4G service by the public sector telecom company. The trade union movement of the BSNL is having a reasonable doubt that the government is preparing the road-map for handing over BSNL to the private, as has been done in the case of Air India.