TCS-led consortium secures Rs 15,000 cr order from BSNL for nationwide 4G rollout

Telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) has issued advance purchase orders (APOs) worth over Rs 15,000 crore to a consortium led by Indian IT services company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), the company announced in a regulatory filing on Monday.

The company said in the statement, “The consortium led by Tata Consultancy Services Limited has received an Advance Purchase Order valued over Rs 15,000 crore from BSNL, a 100 per cent Govt. of India owned Public Sector Undertaking, for the deployment of a 4G network across India.”

This development will help BSNL roll out 4G across India. It is worth noting that the country’s private telecom companies had begun rolling out 4G services on a large scale in 2016. Moreover, 5G was launched in India in September 2022, with Reliance Jio and Airtel providing 5G services across India.

The fact that the government telecom operator is lagging behind private players is not lost on the government. In an earlier address, IT and Telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said that the 4G infrastructure deployed by BSNL would be enhanced to 5G.

“The 4G equipment deployed by BSNL will be quickly enhanced to 5G, requiring a software upgrade,” the Minister said.

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