BSNL added so many lakh customers in just 7 months while users are not liking private telecom companies
Telecom: Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told the Rajya Sabha that, in accordance with the guidelines of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BSNL will use only indigenous equipment to start its 5G network.
Compared with other private telecommunications companies, government telecommunications company BSNL is being favored a great deal by the general users. Over 55 lakh people have subscribed to BSNL in the past seven months. With this, the subscriber base of the company rose to 9.1 crores.
Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, in a reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday, said the customer base of the state-run telecommunications service provider BSNL has risen from 8.55 crores to 9.1 crores between June 2024 and February this year. With the policies initiated by the PM Narendra Modi government, the public sector undertaking has become profitable in the October-December quarter after a gap of 18 years.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia further said that BSNL is working on an important project to provide 4G mobile services to villages across the country where mobile services have not been reached. This project has been approved by the Union Cabinet. Its total cost is Rs 26,316 crore. This also includes upgrading the existing 2G BTS to 4G. BSNL is also upgrading the existing 2,343 2G BTS installed under the LWE Phase-I scheme from 2G to 4G, which is estimated to cost Rs 1,884.59 crore.
The Union Communications Minister said BSNL will start implementing 5G after completing the 4G target of installing one lakh towers. About 73,326 4G towers have been installed, which is about 73 percent of the total work. He said that the remaining work will also be completed soon. The implementation of 5G in India has been the fastest in the world and in the last year, 99 percent of the districts and 82 percent of the population have been covered. India has become the fifth country in the world to manufacture 4G network equipment.
Meanwhile, Minister of State for Communications Pammasani Chandrasekhar informed Parliament that BSNL has acquired spectrum for 5G in 700 MHz, 3300 MHz, and 26 GHz bands. Apart from this, the company has also set a target of 1 lakh 4G sites. The special thing is that these sites can be easily upgraded to 5G. By March 8, 83,993 4G sites will be developed by BSNL. So far, work has also started on 74,521 sites. It will be completed soon.
