State-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) plans to launch commercial 4G services by August 15, India's Independence Day 2022, according to media reports.

But it will also introduce its 5G network in non-standalone (NSA) mode in the same time frame, shared Rajkumar Upadhyay, executive director and chairman of the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), during a recent industry event.

He revealed that BSNL is simultaneously working on 5G while doing proof of concept (POC) for 4G.

While private Indian telcos launched 4G a few years back, BSNL has faced financial and bureaucratic challenges in bringing it to market.

Figure 1: India has been trying to promote the growth of indigenous technologies and products to reduce its dependency on international vendors.
(Source: SOPA Images Limited/Alamy Stock Photo)

BSNL's 4G network has been successfully completed, and the company is expected to launch as soon as commercial agreements are put in place. Meanwhile BSNL's 5G SA deployment can be expected by Q3 of 2023.

Mumbai-based IT services and consulting company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is backing a consortium that has been given the green light to conduct field trials for state-driven networks in Ambala and Chandigarh in North India.

This comes after the withdrawal of rival consortiums led by L&T, HFCL and Tech Mahindra.

State-run Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) is also working with C-DoT on various indigenous products, such as the core network.

India has been trying to promote the growth of home-grown technologies and products to reduce its dependency on international vendors. This is part of its Aatmanirbhar Bharat (self-reliant India) policy.

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BSNL will be using Indian 4G technology to launch services later this year.

Government-owned research organization C-DoT, along with premier academic institutions like the Indian Institute of Technology are playing a crucial role in the development of the domestic telecom technology ecosystem.

With Chinese vendors, including Huawei and ZTE, still unable to get a trusted vendor tag, there is a gap in the market.

The government is also promoting the use of Indian startups to develop indigenous technologies and use cases.

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— Gagandeep Kaur, contributing editor, special to Light Reading