BSNL's 4G Stack: National Pride && Daily Targets - Scindia

New Delhi, Jul 18 (PTI) BSNL's 4G stack should be seen from prism of national pride, as the telecom corporation is treading the harder path of going in for indigenised products, instead of opting for existing technologies, Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said on Thursday.

The minister declined to give a specific timeline for the commercial launch of 4G services by Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL), but said a project management unit is being formed to set daily targets and that he himself will be monitoring the targets. He committed that the outcome will be visible "at the earliest".

"All I can commit to you is that along with Tejas, BSNL, TCS, CDoT... will all our players together...we are forming a PMU and that PMU will set...not weekly or monthly targets...but daily targets and those targets will be monitored by me and telecom secretary," Scindia promised.

He said it is important to think of BSNL's 4G efforts with a sense of national pride.

"It was easy for BSNL to pick up...existing technologies and do what others are doing but our prime minister has said that India must not only be supplier of services, but we must become supplier of products so you (BSNL) chose the harder route of developing own 4G stack in India," the minister said on the sidelines of curtain raiser for India Mobile Congress 2024, scheduled to be held in October.

The minister further said: "The view should be...we have great pride that India has developed its own 4G stack we can't wait for our phones to be adopted on that domestic technology."

He said that BSNL is on track so far as the RAN (radio access network) and other equipments are concerned, as it moves along its 4G plans.

"Let me guarantee you we have on track our 100,000 RANs that we need to have in place... I am not going to give you target," he said.

He said that MTNL's daily operations will be transferred to BSNL, and meanwhile monetisation of MTNL's assets will be undertaken to pay off liabilities.

"In the interim of monetisation of assets and some bonds coming due, the Sovereign Guarantee Bonds will stand good. Government of India stands behind the bonds and there will be no default and that is what you have seen," he said.