Union Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia made bold assurances regarding the State-run PSU BSNL completing the rollout of its indigenously developed 4G technology by May next year as he addressed the audience at the US-India Strategic Partnership Forum. 

Bases 

"We now have a core and a radio access network that's fully functional. We have got a plan of 1 lakh sites by April-May of next year. We've rolled out 38,300 sites as of yesterday. We are going to roll out our own 4G network, which is going to switch to 5G by June of 2025. We will be the sixth country in the world to be able to do that," Scindia said.

The Minister lauded India’s stupendous performance in the previous revolutions for the 4G and 5G rollout while aspiring for a better leading role in the rollout and development of the upcoming 6G technology.  

Indigenous Technology 

He emphasized the government’s policy of employing indigenous technologies and equipment to steer the telecom revolution in every corner of the country.  BSNL's 4G tech is one such effort in itself. It has been developed by the state-run C-DOT and domestic IT Company TCS in a consortium. 

Telecom Transformation 

He appreciated India’s record performance in the 5G rollout wherein the telcos covered 80% of India’s population by installing 4.5 lakh towers in a record period of 22 months while also praising the multifold rise in Broadband Connections that have grown up to 940 million from around 60 million 10 years prior. 

Aggressive Adoption 

Underlining  India’s aggressive adoption of internet technology he pointed to India witnessing extreme penetration resulting from reducing the data costs to roughly 12 cents from approximately three and a half dollars for a GB.  

An Enabling Service  

Finally, he emphasized on government’s approach of looking at the telecom sector as an enabling service and not an end service in itself to develop the sector in terms of the quality of service it offers. He stressed the focus on improving the quality of service to support broader economic and technological advancements.

He also touched upon other aspects of India-US ties as India gears up to develop its very first Fab (Chip Plant) in collaboration with the US.