New Delhi, Sep 26: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil on Saturday state owned BSNL’s fully indigenous 4G stack, placing India among a select group of nations including Denmark, Sweden, South Korea, and China that produce and manufacture their own telecom equipment.
Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia hailed the launch as “a new era for India’s telecom sector,” announcing that the PM will commission over 97,500 mobile 4G towers at Jharsuguda, Odisha, on September 27.
Of these, more than 92,600 mobile sites installed by BSNL are powered by homegrown technology a ‘4G tech stack’ featuring a Radio Access Network (RAN) by Tejas Network, a core network by C-DOT, and integration by Tata Consultancy Services. The system is cloud-based, future-ready, and seamlessly upgradable to 5G.
In addition, Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have installed 4,700 towers, while 14,180 towers funded under the Digital Bharat Nidhi have been deployed in remote, border, and Left-Wing Extremism-affected areas. These will connect over 26,700 previously unserved villages, bringing digital services like e-governance, online education, telemedicine, and digital payments to two million new subscribers.
Scindia underlined that this initiative marks India’s transformation from being merely the world’s largest telecom services market to also becoming a manufacturer and global equipment provider. “Having perfected 4G, we will now move towards converting that to 5G as well,” he said.
With the PM’s launch, India will also achieve 100% 4G saturation coverage, ensuring connectivity to 29,000–30,000 villages under a mission-mode project.
“Tomorrow, the world will awake to India’s arrival not only as the largest service provider with the cheapest data rates but also as a country that produces a complete indigenous 4G stack,” Scindia said.