Broadband
Bharat Net first phase nears completion, provides b’band to village admin
NEW DELHI: E-commerce services, including e governance, education and even reaching television services to far flung areas will get a fillip with the completion of the first phase of Bharat Net and BSNL’s target of providing 100,000 gram panchayats with broadband connectivity by laying underground optic fibre cable (OFC) lines by the end of this month.
Bharat Net is supposed to provide broadband in urban areas but has extended its work to reach out to rural India as well. The project is a Centre-State collaborative project, with the States contributing free rights of way for establishing the OFC.
Congratulating the Communications Minister Manoj Sinha, Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) founder and chairman Rajiv Mehrotra said: “As creators of digital villages, we assure the government that we stand by the government’s vision of Digital India and are committed to helping connectivity reach rural and remote locations through initiatives such as BharatNet through indigenously developed and manufactured, sustainable wireless access technology.”
BharatNet is a project to establish a highly scalable network infrastructure accessible on a non-discriminatory basis to provide on demand affordable broadband connectivity of 2 Mbps to 20 Mbps for all households and on demand capacity to all institutions, in partnership with States and the private sector.
The entire project is being funded by Universal Sservice Obligation Fund (USOF), which was set up for improving telecom services in rural and remote areas of the country. The objective is to facilitate the delivery of e-governance, e-health, e-education, e-banking, Internet and other services to the rural India.
The second phase will provide connectivity to all 2,50,500 grampanchayats in the country using an optimal mix of underground fibre, fibre over power lines, radio and satellite media. It is to be completed by December 2018. For success in phase-2, which will also involve laying of OFC over electricity poles, the participation of States will be important. This is a new element of the BharatNet strategy as the mode of connectivity by aerial OFC has several advantages, including lower cost, speedier implementation, easy maintenance and utilization of existing power line infrastructure. The last mile connectivity to citizens was proposed to be provided creating Wi-Fi hotspots in grampanchayats or village administration.
In the third phase from 2018 to 2023, state-of-the-art, future-proof network, including fibre between districts and blocks, with ring topology to provide redundancy would be created.
Earlier in September last year, the government completed roll out of a telecom network in areas worst affected by left-wing extremism across 10 States in record time as part of a major initiative to boost development in areas dominated by Left-wing extremists.
Working with the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) , Vihaan Networks Limited (VNL) set up the lion’s share of the world’s largest solar-powered green mobile network in Left-wing extremist affected regions using indigenously designed and manufactured technology in a record time of less than 18 months and is now operating and managing it for a period of five years.
Around 100 districts across 10 states—Bihar, Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Telangana, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh and Chhattisgarh—are considered to be Left-wing extremists-infested areas where school buildings, roads, railways, bridges, health infrastructure and communication facilities in these areas are disrupted or sought to be disrupted.
Broadband
Tejas Networks names Arnob Roy as MD and CEO, overhauls top leadership team
The Bengaluru-based telecom gear maker reshuffles its entire top team even as quarterly revenue collapses by 83 per cent
BENGALURU: Tejas Networks is changing the guard at the top, and doing so at speed. The Bengaluru-headquartered telecom equipment maker has elevated Arnob Roy as managing director and chief executive officer, effective April 15, 2026, for a term running through to August 3, 2028, and in the same breath announced new appointments across operations and finance. The timing is pointed: the company is navigating one of the roughest patches in its recent history.
Roy steps up from his role as executive director and chief operating officer, a position he has held since March 2019. He brings more than three decades of experience in the high-technology sector across research and development, operations, and sales. His predecessor, Anand Athreya, resigned last year citing personal reasons and was relieved on June 20, 2025, leaving a gap at the top that has now been formally filled.
The numbers Roy inherits are sobering. Tejas posted a net loss of Rs 211.3 crore in the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2026, a near-194 per cent widening year on year from Rs 71.8 crore in the same period a year earlier. Revenue for the quarter collapsed 82.6 per cent year on year to Rs 333 crore, down from Rs 1,907 crore. EBITDA swung to a loss of Rs 118.2 crore against a profit of Rs 121.5 crore a year ago. The culprit is not hard to identify: Tejas has derived the bulk of its revenue from BSNL’s fourth-generation network project, delivered as part of a Tata Consultancy Services-driven consortium, and that roll-out is now winding down.
Roy, speaking during a post-earnings conference call with analysts, was candid about where the company has been. “The BSNL 4G network went live across 100,000 sites. We deployed our largest indigenous router networks in the country through the BSNL MAN network, as well as in the BharatNet Phase 3 network,” he said, adding that Tejas had also successfully rolled out its 400G and 800G DWDM equipment in domestic and international markets, and continued the deployment of what it describes as the world’s largest satellite IoT network through its vehicle tracking system solution.
The pivot to new revenue streams is already under way. Tejas has partnered with Japan’s Rakuten Symphony and NEC Corporation to push deeper into international markets, with several Open Radio Access Network trials ongoing, one of which concluded recently. The company is also diversifying across equipment categories and geographies to sustain momentum as the BSNL chapter closes.
To prosecute that strategy, Roy needs a full team around him. Preetham Uthaiah has been appointed chief operating officer, moving up from his current role as vice president of product management for wireless products at Tejas Networks. Uthaiah brings nearly 30 years of global experience spanning engineering, product management, and business development across India and the United States. Before joining Tejas Networks, he served as executive vice president of product management, marketing, and strategy at Saankhya Labs, and held senior roles at Tech Mahindra on both sides of the Atlantic. He holds an MBA from Arizona State University and a degree in electronics and communications from Karnatak University.
On the finance front, AVS Prasad has been approved as chief financial officer, effective May 16, 2026, succeeding Sumit Dhingra, who has resigned. Prasad, currently serving as finance controller at Tejas Networks, brings over 27 years of experience within the Tata Group across telecom, aerostructures, and defence. A company secretary and cost and management accountant by training, he has spent more than 15 years in senior finance roles including CFO and financial controller positions, with expertise spanning corporate finance, treasury management, regulatory compliance, internal audit, and governance.
New chief executive, new chief operating officer, new chief financial officer — all installed in a single move, at a moment when the company’s largest revenue source is drying up and the next chapter remains unwritten. Tejas Networks has placed its bets. Now it has to deliver.
