Speaking about the revival of BSNL, Scindia highlighted the importance of having multiple telecom operators in India.
Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia on Friday announced that state-owned telecom company BSNL is making significant progress towards financial recovery and will move towards launching 5G services by mid-2025. Speaking about the revival of BSNL, Scindia highlighted the importance of having multiple telecom operators in India.
He said that BSNL is now becoming financially sustainable, with its revenue growing by 12% to Rs 21,000 crore in the last 3-4 years. Along with this, the company has reduced its expenses by 2 percent.
Notably, BSNL is EBITDA positive since 2021, with its operating profit doubling from Rs 1,100 crore in 2021 to Rs 2,300 crore now, according to reports.
The minister shared BSNL’s ambitious plan to install 1 lakh towers by May or June 2025. “We have built our own 4G core through government-owned C-DOT and RAN (Radio Access Network) through Tata Group-owned Tejas. TCS is the systems integrator, making it a fully integrated ‘India solution’,” Scindia said. He noted that India is now one of the five countries in the world with its 4G hardware and technology stack, with 62,000 towers already rolled out.
Once the target of 1 lakh towers is achieved, BSNL will start upgrading some of them to 5G. “BSNL is on a path of complete transformation,” Scindia said.
In addition, the minister asked the telecom companies to take steps against spam and fraud in their networks and assured that the government would be vigilant to prevent such activities.