BSNL 4G to be upgraded to 5G in 5-7 months; to be rolled out across 1.35 lakh towers: Vaishnaw

State-owned BSNL’s 4G technology will be upgraded to 5G in 5-7 months and rolled out across 1.35 lakh telecom towers the company has in the country, Union telecom and railway minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said on Thursday.

Speaking at a CII event, the Minister said the government had plans to increase the telecom technology development fund from ₹500 crore per annum to ₹4,000 crore to encourage the indigenous innovation.

In response to a question on BSNL’s role in telecom sector by Kotak Bank CEO Uday Kotak, Mr. Vaishnaw said BSNL would become a very strong stabilising factor in the telecom space.

He said BSNL had about 1,35,000 mobile towers across the country with a very strong presence in the rural areas, which were still not fully covered by other telecom players.

“Telecom technology stack is going to be rolled out. It’s a 4G technology stack which will be upgraded to 5G in a timeframe of five to seven months. That technology stack will be rolled out across the 1.35 lakh telecom towers in the country,” Mr. Vaishnaw said.

BSNL has asked Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) to offer equipment for 5G testing so as to enable the telecom firm to start the trials for 5G services.

The Minister said with the roll-out of 5G across BSNL network, the public sector firm, compared with the two other big players and a third player, would become a major player in the telecom space and especially for the far-flung areas which wouldn’t be served by a typical market mechanism.

Talking about encouraging innovation and startup ecosystem, Mr. Vaishnaw said that Indian Railways and defence had started a model to support start-ups from the idea stage to proof of concept and in some cases were giving a market or revenue stream at least for three to four years.

“We are taking that model to telecom space. A Telecom Technology Development Fund of ₹500 crore every year has got established. We will be taking that to ₹3,000-4,000 crore per year. That technology development fund will be available to the entire industry,” Mr. Vaishnaw said.

He said that the Railways already had over 800 start-ups associated with the programme while 2,000 start-ups in defence were part of it.

“You can come up with new ideas for new solutions. Begin from an idea and come up to a product level. Similar experiments will be done in many of the sectors,” the Minister said.

He said that the industry had the responsibility of getting world-class certifications for their products and always take a bigger challenge and deliver something at a better quality then only the word will notice Indian industries.