BSNL is earning by leasing towers to private companies; Jio has the most towers
BSNL Tower Lease: Government telecom company BSNL is earning a lot by leasing its towers. The government presented its figures in Parliament in response to a question.
Government telecom company BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) is earning thousands of crores of rupees every year by leasing its towers to private companies. The government gave this information in Parliament on Wednesday, December 4, 2024.
Union Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Shekhar, while answering a question, said that BSNL leases its towers to private companies. He informed that till March 31, 2024, BSNL had leased 12,502 towers to private companies. Out of them, a maximum 8,048 towers have been leased to Mukesh Ambani's telecom company Reliance Jio.
Chandra Shekhar said that BSNL is a public sector undertaking and it takes its decisions keeping in view the technical and commercial feasibility. The answer shows that the government telecom company is earning good money by leasing towers. According to government data, during the financial year 2017-18 to 2023-24, BSNL earned Rs 6,920.39 crore by leasing towers. In this way, the average earning becomes around Rs 1 thousand crore every year.
BSNL is rapidly expanding its tower infrastructure. The Government of India-owned company also plans to commence its 4G and 5G services in the upcoming days. Regarding this, Union Communication Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia told the Parliament month of August that BSNL has been working vigorously on bringing in 4G and 5G services. For all this, work is going on rapidly for installing new towers in which the company will do 80 thousand towers before the end of October month. After that, 21,000 towers are to be installed by March next year.
Scindia further added that subscribers are growing along with Government company BSNL's 4G network is ready. Along with this, work is going on to convert it into 5G. He further added in a few months the services of a 4G network with indigenous technology will be available across the country through BSNL. For this, he did not give any timeline.
