The Modi government has been very vocal about the Digital India vision. Following up with that, in 2021, the government approved a project which would see 4G mobile service expansion in 7,287 uncovered villages of India in 44 aspirational districts across five states. This project would definitely be a boost to the digital inclusion drive of the Modi government. Today, the Cabinet has approved the project at a total cost of Rs 26,316 crore. But there needs to be a telecom operator who is deploying 4G to expand network services in India. To drive this digital connectivity project, BSNL will be the choice of the government. The Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) will be utilised along with the indigenously developed 4G stack from BSNL to fund this operation. There will be a total of 6,297 villages which will also be upgraded to 4G from the 2G/3G network services. This will help people living in the remote and difficult regions of the country get access to basic network services to do what others in the urban cities can also do. BSNL is already in the process of deploying a homegrown 4G stack, and its partners C-DoT and TCS have shown confidence in the project.
BSNL Gets Relief Package from Government
This project will be a good thing for BSNL as well, which has now been merged with BBNL (Bharat Broadband Network Limited). BSNL has received a Rs 1.67 lakh crore worth of relief package from the government. The Modi government is going all in to help the telecom sector of India. Firstly, it was the relief measures announced for the private operators, and now it is a relief package for the state-run telco BSNL. The government believes that 4G can help BSNL turn into a profitable entity. Hopefully, the government is right here, and BSNL can make an impact with 4G in rural parts of the country.
