A Game Changer For India’s Telecom Landscape

By allowing BSNL, Jio, and Airtel customers to leverage shared infrastructure, this initiative optimises network utilization and enhances service reliability

On January 17, 2025, telecom minister Jyothiraditya Scindia launched an initiative of providing Intra Circle Roaming (Inter Operator Roaming-IOR) at Digital Bharat Nidhi (DBN) funded 4G mobile sites. This is a 76th Republic day gift to BSNL, JIO and Airtel customers as they will be able to use DBN funded 4G sites to make/receive calls and access the internet even if they are not within the range of their own TSP (Telecom Services Provider) cell sites. BSNL, JIO and Airtel are the USPs (Universal Service Providers) which participated in the DBN schemes. To implement this initiative, these three TSPs collaborated to leverage each other's infrastructure at all DBN funded sites.

It may be noted that this facility is not extended to VI (Vodafone Idea) customers.

Until now, IOR is allowed by DOT only during natural calamities so that people can make calls using the available signal of any TSP whose network is functional.

Universal Service Obligation Fund (USOF) has been rechristened as DBN as per Telecommunications Act 2023 and its scope has been expanded. Now this Nidhi will cover underserved urban areas also. This fund will also be utilised to promote R&D in telecom and for the introduction of pilot projects and new technologies. USOF was created in the year 2002 for compensating the TSPs for taking up unviable/unremunerative telecom projects in rural/remote areas. This fund gives subsidy towards capital expenditure as well as for maintenance. Every TSP contributes to this fund through levy of 5 per cent on their Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR).

There are 27,836 DBN funded cell sites across the country. This initiative of allowing IOR at DBN funded sites will enable seamless 4G connectivity for over 35,400 rural and remote villages served by these 27,836 sites.

TRAI in April 2024 recommended that, in the interest of consumers, a TSP which has built mobile networks in the remote areas of the country with full or partial funding from the government under DBN, should be mandated to allow roaming to other TSPs on its network for a period of three years. This will reduce the hardship being faced by the subscribers due to connectivity issues of the home network provider.

Out of these DBN funded sites, lion share i.e. 7,815 sites are installed under 4G saturation Project by BSNL. 2,712 4G sites are operational in the Aspirational Districts. 2,462 4G sites in North East Region, 3,449 in LWE (Left Wing Extremism) areas in two phases and 295 sites under Uncovered Villages project are installed.

As a follow up of the PM's call of saturation of government schemes in his independence day address in 2021, the union cabinet on July 27, 2022 approved a project for saturation of 4G mobile services across the country. The project will provide 4G mobile services in 24,860 villages in remote and difficult areas. In addition to this 6,279 villages having only 2G/3G connectivity shall be upgraded to 4G. BSNL was specially chosen to install 4G Saturation Project sites, as only BSNL is having Athmanirhar Bhatat’s 4G technology stack.

The scheme for provisioning 4G based mobile services in 7,287 villages of 44 Aspirational Districts of AP, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Maharashtra and Odisha was approved on November 17, 2021. JIO and Airtel are implementing this scheme. Similarly, the scheme was planned for provisioning of 4G service in 502 uncovered villages of Aspirational Districts of UP, Bihar, MP and Rajasthan, tender for which was floated on May 19, 2020. Jio, Airtel and Bharti Hexacom are installing sites in this scheme.

Government approved a proposal to implement a comprehensive Telecom Development Plan (CTDP) for the North-East Region. The project aims at providing mobile coverage in this region. Airtel, Jio and Bharti Hexacom are the USPs for this project.

The project of installing cell sites at LWE area aims to connect all rural and far-flung villages in the LWE zones for ensuring proper delivery of citizen services and to empower security forces. Phase I of the project is completed and 2,343 numbers of 2G sites are installed by BSNL. Gazette notification is issued by DBN regarding upgrading these sites to 4G by BSNL. Under Phase II of this project, at 2542 tower locations, 4G services have to be provided. JIO and Airtel are carrying out this project.

Under the Uncovered Villages project, provision of mobile services in 354 uncovered villages in the border areas of Jammu and Kashmir, Ladakh, Himachal Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Uttarakhand and other priority areas is envisaged by installing mobile towers. An agreement was signed on April 28, 2020 with JIO for implementing the project.

The TSPs have to ensure that the installed sites are working on a 24x7 basis and DOT/DBN authority should monitor this aspect. This is necessary because, after implementation of IOR, the signal of these sites will be utilised by not only the customers of that TSP which installed the sites but also by the roamers of other TSPs. Ensuring continuous, stable commercial power supply, promptly running DG set when commercial power supply is not available, attending to cuts in the end link Optic Fiber cable and quick restoration of the equipment faults are challenges in the remote, hilly and forest areas where these sites are installed. TSPs have also to ensure that roaming feature is working in all these sites as the equipments are supplied by different vendors. In future, this test can be included in the acceptance testing schedule itself.

TSPs seeking roaming have to enter into an agreement with the TSP which has installed the cell networks mentioning revenue sharing details.

Way forward

DBN has undertaken an important role in bridging the digital divide across rural and remote areas through its extensive cell networks projects. Till now, the cell sites funded by DBN in such difficult areas are catering to the customers of the specific TSP which has installed the mobile sites. Now, the intra-circle roaming feature at DBN funded 4G mobile sites will allow multiple TSPs to provide services from the same site, enabling a seamless service experience for the customers. This will maximise the utilisation of mobile network capacity at these remote places.

Hope the balance cell sites planned under DBN schemes will radiate soon with roaming features so that more people can enjoy the fruits of digital revolution, including effective DBT (direct benefit transfer) through JAM (Jandhan, Aadhaar, Mobile) trinity.

Though achieving good availability of cell sites in these remote, hilly and forest areas is a big challenge, the TSPs, with their long experience, are second to none to meet such challenges!

(The author is Former Advisor, DOT, Government of India, Bangalore.)