New Delhi: State-owned BSNL plans to roll out 60,000 mobile sites for 4G services across India for an estimate cost of up to Rs 7,200 crore, a top official of the company said on Wednesday.
The company has already installed 10,000 mobile sites for 4G service in select cities of Kerala, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and plans to activate all of them within one and half month.
"In the first phase, we have the plan to roll out 60,000 mobile sites for 4G services across India in the next 12-15 months. These sites will be rolled out in cities where penetration of 4G handset is high and BSNL has a good customer base," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director P K Purwar told PTI.
The government on Wednesday approved revival package for BSNL and MTNL, which includes raising of Rs 15,000 crore sovereign bonds to meet the immediate capital requirement of both the companies, 4G spectrum allocation worth Rs 20,140 crore, Rs 29,937 crore for VRS package and Rs 3,674 crore for goods and services tax that will be levied on allocation of radiowaves.
Telecom Secretary Anshu Prakash said that BSNL and MTNL get relief from the fund that they will realise from the sovereign guarantee bonds.
"BSNL has lowest debt in the industry. It can raise capital from banks to fund its capex requirement. However, it will be decision of BSNL board on how they want to do it," Prakash said.
The spectrum for 4G services will be allocated to both BSNL and MTNL within a month, he added.