A consortium led by Indian IT services provider Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) has received advance purchase orders (APOs) from telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) totaling more than Rs 15,000 crore, the firm disclosed in a regulatory filing on Monday.
The company said in the statement, “The consortium led by Tata Consultancy Services Limited has received an Advance Purchase Order valued over Rs 15,000 crore from BSNL, a 100 per cent Govt. of India owned Public Sector Undertaking, for the deployment of a 4G network across India.”
This development will assist BSNL in deploying 4G throughout India. It's important to note that in 2016, the nation's private telecom firms started to widely roll out 4G services. In addition, 5G services were introduced in India in September 2022 by Reliance Jio and Airtel.
The government is aware of how far behind private players the government-owned telecom company is. Ashwini Vaishnaw, the minister of information technology and telecommunications, has previously stated that BSNL's 4G infrastructure would be upgraded to 5G.
“The 4G equipment deployed by BSNL will be quickly enhanced to 5G, requiring a software upgrade,” the Minister said.
