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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA
MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS
DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS
RAJYA SABHA
UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3048
TO BE ANSWERED ON 19TH MARCH, 2026
REVIVAL OF BSNL AND MTNL
3048 SHRI A. D. SINGH:
Will the Minister of Communications be pleased to state:
(a) the financial assistance and revival packages extended to BSNL and MTNL during the last
three years;
(b) the progress made in their merger and modernization plans; and
(c) the measures taken to improve service quality and market competitiveness of these public
sector telecom companies?
ANSWER
MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT
(DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR)
(a) The details of revival packages extended to BSNL and MTNL during the last three years are
as below:
In 2023, Government approved the allotment of 4G/5G spectrum to BSNL with the total
outlay of around ₹ 89,000 Crores.
In 2025, an additional amount of ₹ 6,982 Crores has been approved as additional CAPEX
support for rollout of 4G network by BSNL across the country.
(b) & (c) An agreement between BSNL and MTNL has been signed, with effect from 1st
January 2025, to run MTNL’s telecommunication services by taking over maintenance and
operational activities of MTNL on EBIDTA neutral basis.
To improve the services quality and market competitiveness, BSNL is rolling out one lakh
indigenously developed 4G sites for pan India deployment. As on 28.02.2026, total 97,906 4G sites
have been installed and 96,103 4G sites are ON-Air.
Further, Amended Bharatnet program has been approved by the Union Cabinet on 04.08.2023
with an outlay of Rs. 1.39 Lakh Crores to extend fiber to all Gram Panchayats and villages on demand
basis, including provisions for 1.5 Crores high speed FTTH broadband connections in rural areas.
BSNL is the Project Management Agency for this scheme.
To further expand the network coverage in Border and remote areas, the Government is
implementing various schemes such as 4G Saturation Scheme, Border Out Post (BOP)/Border
Intelligence Post (BIP) etc. The details of these schemes are available on https://usof.gov.in.
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