Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Wednesday said that the Union Cabinet approved a Rs 1.64 lakh crore package for the revival of state-owned telecom company BSNL, the PTI reported.
According to the report, the package has three elements – to improve services, de-stress balance sheet, and expansion of fibre network.
Briefing reporters on the decision taken by the Union Cabinet, Vaishnaw said the government will make administrative allocation of spectrum BSNL needs to offer 4G services.
To de-stress the balance sheet, Rs 33,000 crore statutory dues will be converted into equity and a similar amount of bank loans will be repaid through the issue of low-interest bonds.
According news reports, as on May 31, the private access service providers held 89.87 per cent market share of the wireless subscribers, whereas BSNL and MTNL, the two state-run access service providers, had market share of only 10.13 per cent, a release by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) said on July 19.
The minister also mentioned that the Cabinet has approved merger of BSNL and Bharat Broadband Network Ltd (BBNL). News agency PTI has tweeted the information.
Meanwhile on 5G auction, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that bids worth Rs 1.49 lakh crore have been received for buying 5G telecom spectrum on the second day of the bidding. He said that the ninth round of bidding is on.
So far, the government had received spectrum bids worth Rs 1.45 lakh crore after the completion of four rounds of spectrum bidding on the opening day on Tuesday.
According to analysts, Reliance Jio may be the most aggressive of those in the race. Though details of the bids are not announced as yet, ICICI Securities said its analysis shows that Jio has likely bid for the highest spectrum worth Rs 80,100 crore, and likely opted for 10MHz spectrum in the premium 700MHz band.
Bharti Airtel may have bid for spectrum worth Rs 45,000 crore, spending 20 per cent more than expected, possibly in 1800MHz and 2100MHz bands.