BSNL to upgrade all 4G towers to 5G within 8 months: Jyotiraditya Scindia

The telecom minister says BSNL's 92,500 4G towers, built using an indigenous tech stack, will be upgraded to 5G within six to eight months as the company posts Rs 5,000 crore operating profit

State-run telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will upgrade all its 4G towers to 5G within the next six to eight months, Union Minister for Telecommunications Jyotiraditya Scindia said.

 

Speaking at the fourth edition of the Kautilya Economic Conclave, Scindia said that the 92,500 BSNL 4G towers that went live on September 27 were built entirely on an indigenously developed software and hardware stack.

 

“When BSNL advanced down the route of executing 4G, there was a difficult decision to make. The easy path was to buy equipment from foreign vendors; the difficult path was to invent our own 4G stack. In 22 months, we developed our own core software and our own radio access network (RAN),” Scindia said.

 

 

The state-run telco, which completed 25 years of service on October 1, has achieved an operating profit of Rs 5,000 crore in the current financial year, up from Rs 2,300 crore in the previous year, Scindia had earlier said. The number of subscribers has also risen from 8.7 crore to 9.1 crore, serving nearly 22 million people across the country, he said.

 

The government is developing a digital consumer charter to establish guardrails and firewalls around the use of artificial intelligence (AI), encompassing principles of ethics, fairness and inclusion, the minister added.

 

“India is primed to emerge as one of the top five AI nations in the world. Turbulent times, as we all know, will come and go. What remains constant is India’s intellect, and her capability for knowledge, innovation and resilience,” Scindia said.

 

He added that India is not just another destination in an age of uncertainty and turbulence.

 

“For those seeking prosperity in turbulent times, I urge them to look, move and invest in India,” Scindia said.