State-owned BSNL[1] is betting on national rollout of 4G VoLTE services, even as it begins preparatory work on 5G to stay future-ready, a top official has said.
"We are looking forward to pan India 4G VoLTE roll out and seeking spectrum from government," BSNL chairman and managing director Anupam Shrivastava told PTI.
Late last year, the telco had written to the Department of Telecom[2] (DoT) to allocate airwaves in the 700MHz band for rolling out 4G services.
The company expects to get the government's approval soon for using airwaves in 700MHz band for offering 4G and 5G services in the future.
BSNL would be required to match the highest bidder's price to acquire the spectrum[3] though historically it is not required to participate in auction.
However, given the high debt burden of the telecom sector, the proposed auction of spectrum in various bands may get delayed by a year[4].
The telco is likely to report a revenue of Rs. 28,700 crores in 2016-17, against Rs. 28,400 crores the year before despite stiff price war from Reliance Jio[5].
Shrivastava said BSNL's balance sheet is least leveraged with just Rs. 5,000 crores debt and the company is also aiming for profitability at net level in 2018-19.
He admitted that BSNL has been left behind but in the last few years, it is on a revival path as it ramps up its infrastructure backbone.
The company has finalised Rs. 6,000 crores for setting up 40,000 new base stations which will be implemented by Nokia[6] and ZTE.
Nokia will execute the work in the south and west regions while ZTE will do...