BSNL 4G Officially Launched on 27th September 2025 - Discussions

BSNL, the state owned telecom service provider has officially launched its 4G-LTE services in India in an event at Jadsuguda, Orissa as India's prime minister Narendra Modi unveiled Swadeshi 4G network of BSNL on September 27, 2025. In fact, BSNL completed its 25 years of milestone of September 26, 2025. 

BSNL has deployed indigenous 4G stack, made by Tata backed Tejas Networks & TCS and C-DoT. Multiple Indian startups are also part of it. It is aligned with the government's strategy of Atmanirvar Bharat (Self reliant India). 

Merger of SSTL into RCom to be Completed by October 2017

Long period MTS mobile and dongle users, it is confirmed that days of MTS India brand in India is numbered. Today on October 1st, 2017 Reliance Communications has released a press released regarding alternate plans to reduce debt as stated by Anil D. Ambani at Recent AGM.

In that PR, it has been confirmed that RCom-SSTL merger to be completed by this month. The merger was announced back in November 2015, and it has been delayed due to many reasons, but mostly from delay from DoT.

Conclusion of the merger will give RCom access to SSTL’s 850 MHz airwaves with extended validity till 2033 in eight key markets that will be used for 4G expansion.

Indian Rural LTE Will Come via 850MHz As of Now!

Few days back I visited Harit, a village nearly 60km away from Kolkata. To my surprise this area does not have any JIO network even LTE850 is also absent there.

My perception was JIO have covered majority of Indian landscape but that's not true. There is another thing (it needs to be verified) JIO is yet launch its LTE850 network with RCom's spectrum.

However my point is India's wireless digital life program needs sub-1GHz spectrum for the better indoor coverage, wider outdoor coverage and less CAPEX expenditure for all these.

Worldwide LTE-FDD deployment on 700MHz is considered to be a global roaming enabler and at the same time it can transform the rural telecommunications by covering the white spots.

However in India the situation is different - here 2G services are also weak at places, 3G network is expanding slower than expected and don't ask about 4G (though Jio's legacy 4G-only network breaks that myth and it has quite better coverage than other operators' 2G/3G network). Debt ridden operators in India skipped the 700MHz spectrum auction recently citing the financial reason.

So as of now India's rural wireless broadband will be depending on 850/900MHz LTE roll out, while LTE900 is yet to come and LTE850 is limited to Jio and Reliance Communications.

Very recently BSNL expressed their interest on 700MHz band for LTE/4G roll out but I am very much skeptical about BSNL's move which is often hindered by several factors. 

Ten Key Trends to Follow in 2016 in Indian Telecommunications

The year of 2016 will bring some stuffs very much new to Indian telecom and will probably make right path to the fate of the industry. Definitely 4G LTE will be the biggest game changer in this year. Jio's commercial 4G LTE launch over multiple spectrum bands with lots of in house concepts as well as tons of stuffs to be consumed it'll be spectacular to see how Jio will manage RIL's most ambitious business venture that was started just from a scratch.

Let me tell you the key trends to see in 2016 in Indian telecom.

Reliance Jio Infocomm (formerly Infotel Broadband) - Updates #3

I am leeching all news updates of Reliance Jio Infocomm (RIL Infotel Broadband) for some months as I am closely following the developments over internet.

Earlier I made two posts, which continue in this post too.

Reliance Infotel - Updates #1
Reliance Infotel - Updates #2

Reliance Infotel Broadband is now Reliance Jio Infocomm - TimesofIndia

Reliance Infotel To Launch Video Ad Network - MediaNama

Reliance is looking for financial services, PoS with differnet banks - MediaNama

Navi Mumbai may get first 4G flavor from Jio Infocomm -  HinduBusiness
Street lamp posts will be added with smaller BTS.

DoT: voice calls are allowed over 4G/LTE with payment of Rs 1650 Crore. Details!

LightReading's 4G updates - Airtel, Aircel, RJI, Videocon, Tikona

Airtel tested voice over LTE/4G in Pune, and planning to rollout services. Airtel also plans to start 4G in ChandiGarh in March 1st week.

Is Mukesh Ambani making a telecom comeback with Reliance Jio? - firstpost

Row over voice services on broadband gets shrill - TheHindu

Mukesh Ambani’s $10-billion telecom foray set to alter telecom order - ETT

$10-billion telecom foray

 Telecom foray will cost Ambani $10 billion, of which RIL has spent about $4 billion in getting licences and on infrastructure development. The company would spend $6 billion in the next three years to launch and stabilize operations. Riding on the success of its deal with BP, the company is eyeing to get the largest foreign direct investment in the country by selling a little over 25% stake in Reliance Jio for $3.5 billion to US-based AT&T, valuing the company at $14 billion — 60% more than the combined market cap of Idea Cellular  ($6.14 billion) and Reliance Communications ($2.4 billion) or 63% of Bharti Airtel's market cap of $22 billion, even before its launch.

Aims to be No. 1

It aims to become India's largest telecommunications player within three years of the launch and to break even by the end of third year. Analysts believe Ambani will definitely change the pecking order in the world's third biggest telecom market as most players are reeling under huge debts amid falling margins . Sunil Mittal got the better of the Ambanis when the latter disrupted the Indian telecom market a decade ago. The jury is out on which way the wind would blow the second time.

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Infocomm dares GSM players to face competition; denies charges -  ETT