Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has directed the Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL) brass to adhere to “only technology developed in India” for its 4G and 5G rollouts.
Anyone having “loyalty” to others should either forget them and move forward or leave the company, he added.
According to a Business Standard report, Vaishnav, in a meeting with BSNL executives, directed them to boost BSNL’s mobile subscriber base to 20 crore via both 4G and 5G services.
The meeting was held days after the government approved a Rs 1.64 lakh crore package for the revival of the state-owned telecom. The package includes fresh capital for upgrading services, allocating spectrum, de-stressing the balance sheet, and augmenting its fiber network by merging Bharat Broadband Nigam Ltd (BBNL) with BSNL.
During the meeting, Vaishnaw further instructed that work on the 5G rollout should take place alongside the 4G rollout and as soon as C-Dot is ready with 5G tech, the company should start integrating 5G radios on the network with 4G.