Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has postponed its 4G expansion plan in the country. The state-operated telecom operator earlier announced to expand its 4G network by installing 50,000 new sites across the country for which it also opened online bid submission for ‘Procurement of Tender’ till May 8.
Now BSNL has postponed the last day of submission by 15 days and kept the last date of submission of tenders to May 23 now. Vendors can bid for the contract until May 23. An exact reason for the postponement is not known but the reason for postponement could be because of the extension of lockdown in India till May 3, reports TelecomTalk.
“The online bid submission and opening of the Tender for Procurement of Tender Document for BSNL’s T.E. for Planning, Engineering, Supply Installation, Testing, Commissioning & Annual Maintenance of 4G Mobile Network in North, East, West & South Zones of BSNL and Delhi & Mumbai LSA of MTNL on TURNKEY basis issued on March 23, 2020scheduled for May 8, 2020 (bid submission end date) & May 9, 2020 (bid opening date) is hereby postponed to May 23 (bid submission end date) & May 25 (bid opening date),” said BSNL in its notice.
With the Phase Nine 4G expansion, BSNL has plans to upgrade 50,000 4G sites in north, east, west and south zones and around 7,000 new sites for Delhi and Mumbai for MTNL.
According to ET Telecom, Samsung is planning to participate in BSNL phase nine 4G Expansion. The report says that Samsung’s participation is surprising’ because the company has been working exclusively with Reliance Jio. Apart from Samsung, other gear vendors like Nokia, ZTE, Ericsson and ITI have participated in phase nine 4G Expansion.
Meanwhile, BSNL Rs 499 Bharat Fibre broadband plan availability has now been extended to June 29. The plan offers 100GB of data per month with internet speeds of just 20Mbps. Once the data limit is exhausted, users can still avail these benefits with reduced 2Mbps internet speeds. Customers will also get unlimited voice calling (local + STD) to any network via its landline service.