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NEW DELHI: In a snub to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s prestigious Atmanirbhrata (self-reliance) in telecom sector, public sector Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has sought intervention from Chinese ZTE and Finnish Nokia, following unstable and non compatibile fourth generation or 4G backbone network developed by state-owned Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT).
“BSNL has asked Nokia and ZTE to provide support in stabilising the outdoor 4G services by leveraging their core networks, and is also increasing IP Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) capacity for network traffic augmentation,” a source privy to the matter told ETTelecom, adding that the ‘core parenting’ is being undertaken in telco’s northern and western zones with a select number of network sites.
Following the development, the fate of BSNL’s ambitious commercial rollout of the next generation network continues to hang in the balance.
State-run C-DoT, a part of Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)-backed consortium, has touted to have indigenously developed the Evolved Packet Core (EPC), which is a framework for offering converged voice and data services on a 4G Long-Term Evolution (LTE) network.
The state-backed firm, however, claimed to have undertaken “successful trials of indigenous 4G core in BSNL commercial network” at Chandigarh and Ambala, which according to it, resulted in TCS-led consortium to bag commercial order for pan-India deployment of 4G upgradable to 5G in BSNL’s network.
However, multiple people aware of the matter said that the core network, designed and developed by C-DoT, continues to face challenges in the outdoor environment making it difficult for multiple subscribers to make concurrent calls.
Network’s core or backbone is critical to mobile telephony, and it establishes connectivity, authentication and authorisation for subscribers.
“Possibly, the problem has been identified and BSNL should be in a position to rectify it in the next or two weeks, and commercial deployments should be taking place soon thereafter,” RK Bhatnagar, director general, Voice of Indian Communication Technology Enterprises (VoICE) told ETTelecom.
Bhatnagar, however, did not divulge further details.
The Delhi-based group represents domestic telecom companies including Tejas Networks and TCS as well as state-driven C-DoT.
Queries to BSNL, C-DoT, TCS, Nokia and ZTE did not elicit any response.
Last year, TCS, a Tata group company, bagged Rs 15,000-crore order from BSNL under phase IX.2 program, on the back of proof-of-concept (PoC) in Ambala and Chandigarh, and is deploying radio active network (RAN) through its Bengaluru-based subsidiary Tejas Networks.
Post initial supply chain disruptions, BSNL’s radio gear supply has now normalised with TCS expecting aggressive 4G network rollout during the current fiscal, according to a person aware of the developments.
Under the phase IX.2 expansion, TCS, however, commercially deployed 4,667 sites in northern and western zones encompassing 12 states, while only site surveys were undertaken in telco’s eastern and southern zones as of March 2024, according to BSNL’s installation and commissioning (I&C) report.
In May last year, Union Communications minister Ashwini Vaishnaw claimed that after testing for three months, BSNL would be putting up 200 4G sites every day, and added that starting December 2023, the network would be upgraded to 5G.
On the contrary, private sector telecom companies Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel spearheading India’s 5G ambition, had together surpassed 400,000 base transceiver stations (BTS) deployments, and have 68.8% and 30.4% 5G availability rate respectively in Q4 2023, according to industry statistics.
BSNL’s ambitious next generation network rollout has been marred with hiccups after it scrapped notice inviting tender in 2020 that proposed Nokia and ZTE for proprietary migration of its network from 2G and 3G to 4G as a technically and commercially viable option. However, homegrown companies felt that the conditions were arbitrary and restrictive in nature and against Centre’s public procurement under the Make in India 2017 policy.
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