During the landline era, BSNL was synoymous with long distance communication in the country, but things changed drastically after people started using mobile phones. Decades later, Vodafone and Idea are struggling to survive together, and Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited is yet to launch 4G while Jio and Airtel have moved on to 5G.
As the threat of a duopoly looms large on the telecom sector, the government has approved a Rs 89,407 crore revival package for the state-owned BSNL.
Support for launching 4G and 5G connectivity
As part of this, equity infusion will be used for the allotment of 4G and 5G spectrum to BSNL, and the announcement comes shortly after speculation about the closure of MTNL and the transfer of its staff to BSNL.
Among other challenges, BSNL also needs to address the poor state of its infrastructure, if it hopes to compete with Reliance Jio and Airtel in the 4G space to begin with.
Although it isn't even close to Jio and Airtel's prominence in cities and most towns across the country, BSNL ensures connectivity in border states, and has set up 20,000 4G towers to provide high-speed data in the region.
After the announcement of the support for BSNL, shares of MTNL also jumped by 12 per cent.
