The Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has received more time from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to finetune the technical parameters of the 4G network for BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited). BSNL’s 4G network launch is expected in a soft manner on August 15, 2022. But according to a recent report from ET Telecom, TCS, BSNL’s partner in deploying an indigenous 4G network throughout India, has received additional time from the DoT (till July 2022 end) for finetuning the technical parameters. Deploying homegrown technology would be no joke. This is something that even the private telcos didn’t want to try. But the government wants to look after India’s security and wants the country to be AatmaNirbhar (self-reliant), and that is why it has directed BSNL to only use homegrown network technology for rolling out 4G and all the future network technologies, including 5G.
TCS and BSNL Agree to Coordinate and Work Closely
The TCS and BSNL have agreed to work closely with each other so that they can finalise the 4G network’s technical capabilities so that a commercial rollout in the near future is possible. The network tests were expected to be completely done by June 30, 2022. But it has taken more time than expected. If both the companies can work together and launch homegrown 4G networks, even at a small scale, by August 15, it would be a win for the government and the Indian consumers. BSNL is planning to launch 4G networks in major cities such as Pune and multiple parts of Kerala by the year-end. More states and cities will get a wider rollout of BSNL’s 4G by the end of 2022, and then the network will keep spreading to reach every part of the country in 2023. The issue right now is that BSNL wasn’t able to provide NB-IoT (narrowband – Internet of Things) service with its 4G network. Thus, BSNL is working with TCS to meet the throughput as per the benchmark set by the 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project).
