The union cabinet accepted the third revival package for BSNL with a total outlay of £8.90 billion, principally for costs linked to spectrum for 4G and 5G services, according to telecom and IT minister Ashwini Vaishnaw. With the third and last revival package, BSNL has received more than £32 billion in financial assistance.
Vaishnaw said that the time has come when BSNL should compete strongly with private telecom players. “It should become a player, which should bring connectivity in the places where normal commercial consideration companies will not be able to go. It should be able to provide digital India services to the weakest of weak sections. With that thought process, the cabinet approved a package of £8.90 billion primarily for spectrum-related items.”
Also, the authorised capital of BSNL will be increased from £15 billion to 21 billion.
The package includes the allocation of high-value wireless frequencies in the 700 MHz band spectrum worth £4.63 billion, 70 MHz in the 3300 MHz band worth £2.62 billion, frequencies in the 26 GHz band worth £656.5 million, in the 2500 MHz band worth £942.8 million, and £53.2 million for other unrelated items.