India’s state-owned telecom company Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has announced a plan to upgrade all of its indigenous 4G network to 5G in up to eight months. The country’s Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia shared the telco’s plan ahead at the Kautilya Economic Conclave.
The minister shared that 92,500 4G towers that came into operation on September 27 are indigenously developed in India. The decision to upgrade them to 5G marks the country’s ambition to develop a self-reliant advanced telecommunications system. Scindia said, “The easy path was to buy equipment from foreign vendors; the difficult path was to invent our own 4G stack. In just 22 months, we developed our own core software and radio access network (RAN).”
It’s worth noting that using the current 4G towers to switch to 5G means the telco is opting for non-standalone (NSA) 5G, which means utilizing LTE 4G gears for the next-generation cellular technology.
The telco’s latest development marks its reinvigorated confidence emanating from improved finances. The company has generated INR 5,000 in operating profit in 2025. At the same time, it saw a user base growing from 8.7 crore to 9.1 crore.
The full 5G rollout will further bolster BSNL’s path to recovery and competitiveness, while its efficiency will also get a boost amidst a fierce telecom market dominated by private players such as Jio and Airtel. But also important, it will be a milestone for India as it plans for a self-reliant telecommunications standard.