BSNL plans to invest Rs 4,300 cr for network push

New Delhi: State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will invest about Rs 4,300 crore to expand network in 2018-19, and another Rs 5,000-6,000 crore is likely to be the utilised for government telecom projects, according to a top official.

The investment of Rs 4,300 crore earmarked for BSNL’s own expansion will primarily go into strengthening the mobile network, upgrading broadband infrastructure and strengthening the core network, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava said.

“Rs 5,000-6,000 crore will be spent on the government projects like Bharat Net, Network for Spectrum, the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for the North East, as well as boosting connectivity to the Andamans with optical fibre network, and others,” he said.

Other government projects that BSNL is executing, include providing bandwidth to the Lakshadweep islands, and connecting remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh, he said.

“The government is investing in large connectivity projects, where private players are not going. BSNL is being used as one of the vehicles to execute those projects and we do that work on behalf of the government,” he said.

Shrivastava said that the telecom corporation will look at installing 12,000 mobile towers for 3G services and 10,000 for 4G services. This will have a provision for 100% expansion mapped to BSNL’s 4G rollout and spectrum allocation.