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India Lines Up ₹47,000 Crore Capex for BSNL to Accelerate 4G and Prep for 5G

The plan aims to boost BSNL’s competitiveness against private rivals by funding a domestic 4G network infrastructure.

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To showcase its indigenous 4G network, BSNL has introduced a limited-period Freedom Offer for new customers.

Overview

  • The Department of Telecom has approved a ₹47,000 crore capex to rapidly scale BSNL’s domestic 4G network and lay the groundwork for commercial 5G services.
  • BSNL has rolled out a limited-time Freedom Offer at Re 1 for new customers through retailers and CSCs, featuring unlimited voice calls, 2GB of daily data and 100 SMS each day until August 31.
  • Telecom minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has instructed BSNL to boost its mobile subscriber base by 50% and expand enterprise and fixed-line services by up to 30% and 20% respectively over the next 12 months.
  • The ministry has also urged BSNL to raise its average revenue per user, noting that its current ARPU of ₹40–175 lags behind rivals Reliance Jio’s ₹208 and Airtel’s ₹250 for the June quarter.
  • The network expansion will leverage a Make-in-India technology stack from domestic vendors including TCS, the C-DOT consortium, Tejas Networks and ITI Limited.