Patna/Ranchi: Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is likely to launch 4G mobile service by the end of this year in Patna and rest of Bihar circle, said principal general manager (PGM), Patna telecom district, Arbind Prasad on Thursday.
Prasad, a 1993-batch Indian Telecom Service (ITS) officer, has recently took over as the new PGM of Patna. Earlier, he was posted as chief vigilance officer (CVO) of Heavy Engineering Corporation (HEC), Ranchi.
Also Read: All villages to get 4G telecom access by 2024: Minister
Talking about the BSNL’s plan to strengthen mobile service in the town, Prasad said the advance purchase order for state-of-the-art 4G mobile equipment has been placed with the Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an Indian multinational company. “We hope to get the equipment for installation by September-October this year,” said the PGM, adding that the new 4G hardware are upgradable to 5G after modification in the software.
A senior officer of the Bihar telecom circle said that the BSNL had placed the purchase order for 4G equipment from TCS after successful testing of the proof of concept at Chandigarh recently. Currently, only 16 small towns including Bhojpur, Darbhanga, Bihar Sharif, Katihar and Jehanabad of the state are partly covered under the 4G network.
Also Read: Remote villages of Jharkhand, Bihar &- Himachal to come under 4G cover
All the districts would be brought under the high-speed 4G network by the end of this year or in the first quarter of next year, depending up on availability of the equipment. “We have planned installing as many as 3,620 4G towers across the state, of which about 900 towers will be installed in Patna only,” said a senior officer, dealing in mobile operation.
Prasad said that as many as 211 new towers would be erected in different locations of the capital city to provide high-speed internet data to the BSNL users. “Locations of these sites are being finalised. 4G equipment will be installed on about 600 towers, currently operating 3G services,” said the PMG.
Also Read: Govt works out ₹26,316-cr plan to bring 40,000 villages under 4G net
A senior officer of Jharkhand telecom circle of BSNL said that equipment for both the circles (Bihar and Jharkhand) would start arriving synonymously. “We have already identified new site locations for 4G towers in different parts of the state for their installations. We hope that the equipment would start coming in from September-October,” said the official.
Currently, BSNL has mobile subscribers’ base of around 57.75 lakh in Bihar (Jharkhand) licensing service area against 4 crore of Bharati Airtel, 3.67 crore of Reliance Jio and 83.93 lakh of Voda Idea.
Union telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnav had in December last year announced that the BSNL would launch 5G service in 2023. However, officials said that it was unlikely to match the announcement in keeping with procedural delays in procurement of the 4G equipment.
