Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is soon going to start rolling out 4G in India. Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a Tata Group company, will help out BSNL in launching homegrown 4G. To roll out BSNL’s 4G, TCS and ITI Limited have submitted their bids. ITI Limited will be using TCS equipment only for rolling out BSNL’s 4G, said an ET Telecom report. TCS and BSNL completed the proof-of-concept (PoC) for homegrown 4G by the end of October. The report suggests that the bids will be opened up on Wednesday, i.e., today. Note that ITI has a 20% reservation in the overall deployment of BSNL’s 4G. C-DoT (Centre for Development of Telematics) will be providing the locally developed 4G core solution for BSNL’s homegrown network. TCS will play the role of the systems integrator (SI), while Tejas Networks will take care of the network equipment. BSNL and TCS weren’t coming to terms with the cost associated with the project, but the report suggests that costs have been broadly negotiated by the two companies. TCS would need to take care of the networks of BSNL (maintenance activity) for 10 years. BSNL wants to upgrade over 100,000 sites across India to 4G. TCS would require over 18 to 24 months to provide radio that will go into these sites. Tata Sons acquired Tejas Networks back in 2021, which will now give the Tata Group better control over the costs and project. Earlier this year, BSNL placed an order with the TCS to supply equipment for 6400 radio sites which will be deployed over the 900 MHz and 2100 MHz bands. Currently, BSNL has 5 MHz of spectrum in the 2100 MHz band and would need another 5 MHz in the same band to offer 4G services in India. The core solution provided by C-DoT can be upgraded to 5G easily. C-DoT even demonstrated its indigenous 5G core at the recently held India Mobile Congress 2022.
