— In line with the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, BSNL has installed a total of 97,068 4G sites, and 93,511 sites are ‘ON-Air’
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NEW DELHI — In line with the ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ initiative, BSNL has installed a total of 97,068 4G sites, and 93,511 sites are ‘ON-Air’ (till October 31), the Parliament was informed on Wednesday.
BSNL has placed a purchase order for indigenously developed 4G sites for pan-India deployment, and the supply of 4G equipment has started from September 2023, Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development, Dr Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, told the Lok Sabha in a reply to a question.
"The equipment is 5G upgradable from a technology perspective. To further enhance the network infrastructure and service quality, BSNL is executing the various schemes of the government, such as 4G Saturation Scheme, Border Out Post (BOP)/Border Intelligence Post (BIP), LWE Phase-I upgradation, etc," he added.
BSNL aims to upgrade all 4G towers to 5G within eight months.
BSNL is also regularly replacing old or life-expired batteries on towers in a phased manner. DG sets are also available on towers based on power condition/high revenue/ priority areas. Further, solar power is made available as the primary source of power for most of the new 4G BTS locations installed under Digital Bharat Nidhi.
The state-owned telecom company showed a strong performance trajectory through the first half of the current fiscal (H1 FY26), recording a revenue of Rs 11,134 crore. The telecom firm achieved a 93 per cent revenue run rate against Q2 targets, generating close to Rs 5,347 crore.
BSNL’s annual revenue target for FY26 stands at Rs 27,500 crore, up from Rs 25,000 crore in the previous year, a testament to the organisation’s rising operational and market performance, according to Union Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia.
"Everything in life is execution-driven, and our CGMs are BSNL’s execution artists. You are the standard-bearers of transformation across your circles," Scindia stated. He emphasised the need for daily focus on Quality of Service (QoS), highlighting it as the "non-negotiable mantra" for the organisation. In line with BSNL’s diversification goals, the Minister encouraged circles to explore new revenue streams.