India is gearing up for a major leap in connectivity as state-run BSNL begins upgrading its newly launched indigenous 4G network to 5G over the next six to eight months.
Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia, speaking at Kautilya Economic Enclave 2025 on Sunday, announced that more than 92,500 Swadeshi 4G towers—built with India’s first homegrown 4G standard—will soon deliver end-to-end 5G coverage from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
The domestic 4G stack, unveiled by Prime Minister Modi in late September, was developed in just 22 months.
Swadeshi 4G stack
C-DoT provided the cloud-native core network, Tejas Networks supplied the radio access network, and TCS handled systems integration. Nearly 98,000 towers now serve 22 million customers, including 2 million first-time digital users across urban and rural India, according to the Centre.
This also marked India’s entry into the select group of five countries capable of launching a fully indigenous 4G service—joining Sweden, Finland, South Korea and China in that club. It also demonstrates resilience and supply-chain independence born of pandemic-era urgency to build critical infrastructure at home.
Under the Digital Bharat Nidhi 4G saturation project, another 29,000 villages were connected, with BSNL returning to profitability after 17 years of losses.
India is 5G ready
Scindia confirmed plans to switch these towers to 5G technology within months. The 5G-ready architecture would ensure a seamless upgrade without replacing hardware, using domestic talent and local supply chains.
Commercial 5G services launched in October 2022 have already covered 28 states and eight union territories in India. By mid-2025, telecom operators installed nearly 486,000 5G base stations nationwide, making India one of the fastest 5G rollouts globally, the Centre announced last week.