Finally, our losses have reduced by nearly Rs 2,000 crore. Five years ago, we had a Rs 7,500-crore loss; last year, it was Rs 5,200 crore, and hopefully, this year, we will close at around Rs 2,500 crore.Rakesh Kumar: When will BSNL have a commercial 4G and 5G network?Commercial 4G has already started. Currently, we have 1.84 crore 4G customers. Our total customer base is about 9.1 crore, which has grown from 8.65 crore in June 2024 — an increase of 6%-7%. Our 4G customers have increased from 84 lakh to 1.8 crore in this period — almost two-and-a-half times growth. So, we already have a very sizable 4G customer base.My target is to deploy 1,00,000 4G towers using India’s indigenous 4G stack. Historically, when moving from 3G to 4G, only four countries and five equipment manufacturers have been able to develop telecom equipment for 2G to 3G, 3G to 4G, and now 5G.For the first time, India has broken into this elite group, becoming the fifth country in the world to develop its own indigenous 4G stack. This is only possible because of the Prime Minister’s resolve to make India Atmanirbhar in telecom.We don’t want to be just a services nation; we want to be a product nation as well. This is being achieved through a joint working group between BSNL, C-DoT, and equipment manufacturer Tejas (part of TCS). This is a wholly indigenous solution, and we are rolling out 1,00,000 towers by June.Santwana Bhattacharya: What is your take on the Manipur situation?The government does not see it as a matter of concern, but is working on it assiduously. Manipur has, unfortunately, been facing this situation for decades. As far as developments are concerned, we are very much on track. I monitor them on my dashboard weekly.
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