Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, India’s state-owned telecom operator, has unveiled a landmark policy to allow startups and private players to access its data-centre infrastructure through a revenue-sharing partnership model. This move is going to reshape the Indian digital ecosystem by breaking entry barriers for startups with intense infrastructure requirements in areas like AI, cloud computing, edge computing, and IoT.
Traditionally, the setting up of a data centre in India has involved massive capital expenditure for land, power, cooling, and networking. For early-stage startups, such requirements were often insurmountable, limiting innovation to software and application-level solutions. This new model by BSNL allows the startups to use its nationwide infrastructure network of nearly 70,000 facilities to host their services without heavy upfront investments. Startups will be able to set up micro and edge data centres closer to end-users using BSNL’s space, power, and bandwidth.
This policy arrives at a critical juncture. Operational data-centre capacity stands at around 1.4 gigawatts in India. This number, according to industry estimates, will double by 2027 and increase fivefold by 2030 driven by surging demand for AI/ML applications, real-time analytics, gaming, AR/VR, and IoT services. In the process, it allows BSNL to democratize participation in what earlier remained a capital-intensive segment for startups.
The salient features of this policy are oriented towards the needs of startups. Firstly, the revenue-sharing model diminishes the capital expenditure burden while allowing scaling at a gradual pace. Explicitly, the policy supports edge and micro data centers, which are critical for low-latency services and localized computation. This enables participation from startups located outside major metropolitan cities, hence decentralizing innovation and opening more avenues for startups in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities. Finally, with the national and state governments offering incentives such as tax exemptions, input tax credits, and preferential policies for data-center parks, startups have more financial levers to optimize operations.
The policy opens various doors for growth for startups in Bharat. Low infrastructure costs will let the companies develop value-added services, such as AI pipelines, cloud management platforms, and compliance solutions. Other innovative areas that can be explored by the firms include efficient cooling solutions, software for energy optimization, and services for processing data in real time. Moreover, data localization requirements and demand for sovereign cloud solutions create a niche for startups that ensure regulatory compliance with high-performance infrastructure services.
The policy also incentivizes regional expansion. Micro and edge data centers can be set up in smaller cities, reducing latency for end-users as well as promoting regional economic development. Startups can design distributed architectures to serve the localized needs efficiently. Such democratization of infrastructure may unleash a new generation of Bharat-based companies that can provide high-value digital services both domestically and globally.
While this is an attractive opportunity, there are certain challenges in which a startup should tread carefully. The revenue-sharing agreement needs to be scrutinized for contractual terms on profit sharing and operational obligations. The underlying technology itself has to be robust: power reliability, efficiency of cooling, and network connectivity all have critical implications for operational stability. More importantly, meeting requirements on security and data localization for workload types, especially enterprise and government workloads, must be considered.
It is not just physical infrastructure that BSNL is providing by opening its doors to startups; it is actually laying the foundation for a broader innovation ecosystem. Startups can now go ahead and build the core services and infrastructure tools that will power the next wave of India’s digital economy, rather than just application-level solutions. The policy represents a new way that public resources can catalyze private innovation, signaling a new era in which the infrastructure is no longer a barrier but a launching pad for scalable, high-impact ventures.
In other words, the data-center partnership policy of BSNL gives each startup a unique opportunity to innovate, scale, and grow without the deterrent of exorbitant infrastructure costs. It encourages experimentation in edge computing, artificial intelligence, and cloud services while fostering regional development and meeting the spiraling demand for digital services in India. For Bharat-based entrepreneurs, this policy is an invitation to think big, move fast, and build the next generation of infrastructure-driven startups that can compete on a national and global scale.
