BSNL to complete pan-India 4G rollout for all users by September-end

BSNL CMD A Robert J Ravi says the telco will launch its nationwide 4G network on September 27, with 1 lakh towers installed and plans for Rs 47,000 crore 5G investment

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will complete the rollout of its pan-India 4G network and launch the upgraded network for all its customers by the end of this month, the company’s chairman and managing director, A Robert J Ravi, said.

 

“It is our indigenous technology that we are inaugurating across the country on September 27,” Ravi said during his address at the Bharat Digital Infra Summit 2025.

 

On August 15 this year, the state-run telco had announced a soft launch of its 4G services in the national capital telecom circle.

 

The 4G-as-a-service for BSNL is currently being delivered to the telcos’ users through a partner’s network access arrangement that provides last-mile radio coverage on compatible 4G devices.

 

The debt-laden telco began rolling out 4G services to users in metro cities in 2024, with an initial investment of ₹25,000 crore.

 

It has so far installed 1 lakh mobile towers for these services. To further augment its network capacity and provide 5G services to its users, BSNL plans to invest up to ₹47,000 crore.

 

In July this year, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia had expressed hope that BSNL would report a healthy operating cash flow in the coming quarters on the back of strengthened 4G offerings and services.

 

During a review meeting of BSNL, Scindia had also urged the telco to raise the weighted average revenue per user (Arpu) by at least 50 per cent and to grow the enterprise business by 25-30 per cent per strategic business unit over the next year.

 

The state-run telecom company had posted a net profit of ₹262 crore in the July–September quarter and ₹280 crore in the October–December quarter of 2024, its first back-to-back profitable quarters in 18 years.