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BSNL has asked to government to take back the broadband wireless access (BWA) spectrum offered to it in 17 circleswhich it used to operate the outdated and isolated WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) service.

BSNL has taken the decision as it was making losses after its plans to rollout WiMAX based services through a franchisee model failed to gain any momentum.

Earlier in 2010, the public telco was offered the 2.4 gigahertz of BWA spectrum which was of a poor quality compared to the efficient 2.3 gigahertz band offered to the private telecom players.

The 2.4 gigahertz of BWA spectrum is known to interfere with other bands and does not effectively work for WiMAX services.

BSNL had paid Rs 8,313 crore for accessing the BWA airwaves last year and it has made losses worth almost RS 6,000 crore for the last fiscal.

Private telecom companies are now planning to bid for the rollout of the fourth-generation (4G) technology, technically known as the Long Term Evolution (LTE) expected to be launched globally next year.

A telecom industry official said that Wimax is not commercially viable and BSNL as the only company on WiMAX platform will face isolation in interoperability and roaming arrangements.