BSNL, MTNL may come up with 4G network by end of this year, says Devusinh Chauhan

As per Minister of State (MoS) for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL) may shift to 4G network by the end of 2022.

During his interaction with the officials of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and postal department in Ekta Nagar, Kevadia, he said the villages of Gujarat that do not have mobile network connectivity will be covered by the end of the year.

A release quoted Chauhan as saying, “Gujarat is a border state and the telecom department has chosen 60 villages from the security perspective for installing 50 new mobile towers at a cost of Rs 41 crore. Of these, 37 villages have been covered while the remaining 13 villages will get mobile connectivity by June.”

Adding that there’s a definite plan to connect six lakh villages across the country with high-speed fiber broadband and mobile services, the minister said, “The government has decided to provide fibre connectivity to all 14,622 gram panchayats (in Gujarat) of which work is on for installing fibre connectivity in the last phase of 4,400 villages.”

He also said that 11 new post offices are being constructed and 17 more are in the pipeline in Gujarat. By July 31, 1.25 lakh accounts of Sukanya Samruddhi scheme will be opened in the state, he said.

On the sidelines of the event, Chauhan also said the 5G spectrum will be rolled out by December-end across India. “We are setting up the infrastructure for 5G spectrum, which will soon see auctions… Many people have expressed apprehensions about health hazards associated with the mobile towers, but there has been no scientific backing to these claims,” the minister said.