Dept of Telecom feels BSNL deliberately delaying 4G

NEW DELHI: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) believes state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) is ‘deliberately delaying’ rolling out fourth generation (4G) network, with both blaming the other for time being taken to offer high speed data services to subscribers, which is leading to continuing revenue and subscriber losses.

For the state-run telco’s upcoming tender for over 50,000 4G sites, an internal committee of the DoT had recommended that BSNL divert its focus and spending away from 2G and 3G, and use domestic gear vendors for deploying 4G-only radio and core network. The loss-making telco, which has struggled to keep pace with private operators, has opposed the suggestions, saying it still gets 60% of its revenue from 2G and using only local vendors – whose products are untested – will hamper quality of services.