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Time of India
4 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
Robert J Ravi gets 3-month extension as CMD of BSNL, MTNL
NEW DELHI: The Centre, on Monday, extended Robert J Ravi 's additional charge as the chief managing director (CMD) of state-controlled telecom carriers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited ( BSNL ) and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited ( MTNL ) by three months, according to a regulatory filing by MTNL in aftermarket hours. '...as an interim measure and subject to the approval of the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet (ACC), the additional charge of the post(s) of CMD, BSNL, along with CMD, MTNL and CMD, BBNL entrusted to Ravi A Robert Jerard, DDG, DoT, is extended for a further period of three months w.e.f. 15.07.2025 till 14.10.2025, or until further orders, whichever is earlier,' the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said in an official order. MTNL shares closed 7.24% higher at ₹52.12 on the Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE). During the period of holding additional charge, he will not be entitled to any additional remuneration. For the first time on July 13, 2024, Ravi was given the additional charge as CMD of BSNL and MTNL, following the rejection of PK Purwar 's extension. In January 2025, the telecom department (DoT) extended the additional charge given to Ravi for six more months. He was expected to get a further extension owing to the ongoing BharatNet phase 3 program. Till October 2024, under BharatNet Phase-I and Phase-II, 2.14-lakh village blocks were made service-ready. This was against the planned network of 2.22-lakh blocks in both phases. The Public Enterprise Selection Board (PESB) had not recommended any candidate for the post of CMD at state-owned BSNL, following an interview of 10 out of 12 shortlisted candidates, ETTelecom reported on March 28. 2025.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Telecom push: BSNL enters 5G fixed wireless market with Hyderabad launch; plans expansion to six cities by September
State-owned telecom firm BSNL has entered the 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) space, launching its home broadband service in Hyderabad, the company said on Friday. The move pits BSNL against private sector giants Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel, which are already offering similar services using their 5G spectrum. 'Quantum 5G FWA demonstrates how Indian engineers can create world-class connectivity. It is the first SIM-less, 100 per cent home-grown customised 5G FWA for BSNL,' said BSNL Chairman and Managing Director A Robert J Ravi. 'Today is only a soft launch — many more cities and feature upgrades will follow.' The company said it formally launched the service on June 18 and plans to expand the pilot project to Bengaluru, Pondicherry, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Gwalior, and Chandigarh by September 2025, reported PTI. BSNL is initially offering the service at Rs 999 for a 100 Mbps plan and Rs 1,499 for a 300 Mbps plan. The FWA technology allows telecom providers to deliver wireless broadband by installing an outdoor modem at the subscriber's premises, connecting to the nearest 5G base station. The solution bypasses the need for an optical fibre connection. Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
BSNL forays into 5G fixed wireless service
New Delhi: State-owned telecom firm BSNL has forayed into 5G fixed wireless service to provide home broadband service with its launch in Hyderabad, the company said on Friday. At present, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have been providing 5G Fixed Wireless Service (FWA) by using their 5G spectrum. " Quantum 5G FWA demonstrates how Indian engineers can create world-class connectivity. It is the first SIM-less, 100 per cent home grown customised 5G FWA for BSNL. Today is only a soft launch - many more cities and feature upgrades will follow," BSNL Chairman and Managing Director A Robert J Ravi said. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like How Much Should You Pay A Cleaner To Clean Your Apartment in Vietnam? Cleaning | Search Ads Search Now Undo The service was launched on June 18. According to the details shared by BSNL, the company will expand the pilot project in Bengaluru, Pondicherry, Vishakhapatnam, Pune, Gwalior and Chandigarh by September 2025. Live Events The company is initially charging Rs 999 for a 100 megabit per second (mbps) plan and Rs 1,499 for a 300 mbps plan. Through 5G FWA, telecom operators install a modem outside the subscriber's premise and transmit signals from their nearest base station for wireless broadband service. The technology does not require optical fibre for connection.
Time of India
20-06-2025
- Business
- Time of India
BSNL soft-launches 5G FWA service in Hyderabad, plans pilots in more cities
NEW DELHI: State-controlled telecom carrier Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited ( BSNL ) has soft-launched its SIM-less 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) solution, 'Quantum 5G FWA', in select cities of Hyderabad. This will be followed by expansion on pilot-basis in other key cities including Bengaluru, Pondicherry, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Gwalior and Chandigarh by September 2025. A soft-launch is intended to gather customer experience feedback for fine-tuning various parameters ahead of a wide-scale nationwide roll-out. Introductory plans for BSNL Quantum 5G FWA are priced at ₹999 for 100Mbps and ₹1,499 for 300 Mbps. This compares to Bharti Airtel 's 5G FWA plans priced ₹699, ₹799, and ₹899, and Jio's 5G FWA plans priced from ₹1,499. Notably, BSNL has yet to commercially launch its fifth-generation or 5G mobile services nationwide. The telecom PSU currently provides 4G services via a footprint of 1 lakh mobile towers. 'Quantum 5G FWA demonstrates how Indian engineers can create world-class connectivity. It is the first SIM-less, 100% home-grown customised 5G FWA for BSNL,' Robert J Ravi, CMD, BSNL said in a recent statement. 'Hyderabad's tech-savvy ecosystem makes it the perfect launch pad for our next-generation access portfolio. This is only a soft launch; many more cities and feature upgrades will follow,' Ravi said. Its private sector rivals, Jio and Airtel, have been offering their respective 5G FWA services since late 2023. There were 7.5 million FWA subscribers as of April 2025, including Jio's 6.14 million and Airtel's 1.36 million. FWA additions (730,000) have already surpassed fixed broadband (370,000) and constitute 60-80% of the overall monthly broadband additions, analysis by Axis Capital showed earlier. According to the telco's statement, the service utilises BSNL's direct-to-device platform to automatically authenticate the subscriber's consumer premises equipment (CPE) without requiring a physical SIM card. This makes BSNL the first Indian telco to showcase a production-grade SIM-less 5G service, the statement added. It is built on a fully indigenous stack including the Core and the radio access network (RAN). The standalone (SA) 5G Core will also support network-sliced, service level agreement (SLA)-backed links for MSMEs and smart-manufacturing clusters. BSNL said the Quantum 5G FWA service recorded a peak download speed of 980Mbps and an upload speed of 140Mbps with sub-10ms latency in Ameerpet. Its self-install gateway reaches 85% of Hyderabad households under the existing BSNL tower grid, which eliminates the need for trenching or fibre pull.
Time of India
30-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Captive 5G, commercial 4G & cost efficiencies to drive BSNL's future revenues: Robert Ravi
NEW DELHI: State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited ( BSNL ) expects widespread availability of its commercial fourth-generation (4G) services and cost-efficiencies to drive top-line growth in the next few quarters, a top official said. 'We are undertaking several initiatives to improve cost efficiencies and reduce overheads. Additionally, our next-generation 4G services will see expanded coverage in the coming months. We are also exploring emerging business opportunities such as captive 5G networks for enterprises and leveraging advanced technologies for automation and digital transformation," BSNL CMD Robert J Ravi told ETTelecom. Further, Ravi said that these efforts together are expected to "significantly drive future revenues and strengthen BSNL's position" in the evolving telecom landscape. The public sector telecom operator clocked a net profit of ₹280 crore in Q4FY25, rising sequentially from ₹262 crore in Q3FY25. It cut down loss by 58% to ₹ 2,247-crore in FY 2025, from ₹ 5,370-crore in FY 2024. Commercial 4G network-based data services contributed nearly 6% of the telco's overall revenue in Q4FY25. Recently, the public sector telco, in partnership with a Mumbai-based startup Tidal Wave , deployed a captive 5G network for a few Coal India mines using the 2500 MHz spectrum band. The top official also said that the state-owned telecom carrier is also "looking at bundling affordable data plans together with smartphone offering", and is in talks with homegrown original device makers (ODM), as a part of its strategy. The telco is largely rolling out next generation networks on the 700 MHz frequency range with both top mobile chipset providers - MediaTek and Qualcomm - supporting the spectrum band. READ MORE | Homegrown Tidal Wave, BSNL deploy private 5G network in Coal India, eyes public sector business The telco is rolling out 4G services in partnership with Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services-led consortium that includes Tejas Networks and state-owned Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT). Tata Sons holds a majority of stake in Bengaluru-based Tejas Networks, which is providing radio access network (RAN) to the telco's ambitious 4G and 5G rollout initiative. Last week, BSNL awarded a Rs 2, 903.22-crore follow-on order to N Ganapathy Subramaniam-headed TCS for planning, engineering, supply, installation, testing, commissioning and annual maintenance of 18,685 4G network sites. BSNL, however, is expecting to increase its revenue by at least 10% once it deploys the next generation network nationwide. BSNL CMD Robert J Ravi talks on telco's 5G expansion, use cases
