Company investing in connectivity projects where private firms are not going, says BSNL top boss

The state-owned telecommunication company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will invest Rs 4,300 crore for network expansion in FY19. The public sector unit will also invest Rs 5,000-6,000 crore maybe utilised for government telecom projects, PTI reported citing an unidentified source. The investment of Rs 4,300 crore will go into the mobile network strengthening, and upgrading
broadband infrastructure, PTI reported citing Chairman and Managing Director Anupam Shrivastava.
The government projects such as Bharat Net, Network for Spectrum, the Comprehensive Telecom Development Plan for North East, as well as boosting connectivity to Andaman with optical fibre network, and other will attract Rs 5,000 to 6,000 crore investment, he said.
The remote areas of Arunachal Pradesh will be connected and bandwidth will be provided to Lakshadweep islands, he said. BSNL is being used as one of the vehicles to invest in large connectivity projects where private players are not foraying and the company does that work on behalf of the government, said he. Around 12,000 mobile towers will be installed for 3G services and 10,000 for 4G services, he said.

As per the recent report by Trai, on 31 January BSNL owned 9.40 percent share of mobile services market. The public sector company added 3.96 lakh customers during that month.