India’s government-owned telco BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited) has reportedly planned to shut down its 3G network. The news comes as the telco continues to aggressively expand 4G services across the country, and the news could scare the uses who are still on 3G-only phones.
There is logic to stress 4G services, though. BSNL still lags behind Airtel, Jio, and the likes in the telco race as they have gone on to expand 5G all over India, while it’s still operating 3G and 4G. To stay competitive, it’s now focusing on upgrading its services from the legacy network to at least 4G.
Reportedly, the company is ready to terminate contracts with Nokia and ZTE that maintain its 3G infrastructure. Besides focusing on 4G expansion, it’s also geared up for 5G launch.
So far, BSNL has about 100,000 4G sites ready for 5G across the country.
BSNL phasing out 3G for 4G/5G
As part of its 3G shutdown plans, BSNL is requesting users to switch to 4G or the upcoming 5G SIM. The letting go of 3G won’t hamper many. But, there could still be many users who are clinging to 3G. The bigger problem here is that some of them may have a phone that only connects to up to 3G. So, that means 4G won’t work on their devices, and that leaves them with the only option to buy a 4G-compatible phone.
BSNL operates 3G in 5,863 towns and cities across India. With the 3G shutdown, users might be affected in the existing sites if they are on incompatible smartphones.
Unlike 3G, 4G unlocks faster data speed, VoLTE HD voice calls, low-latency data, and more reliability.
Also, check out: Jio, Airtel, BSNL start cross-network HD voice service