Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday officially launched BSNL’s Swadeshi 4G network in Jharsuguda, Odisha, marking a watershed moment in India’s push for telecom self-reliance. The indigenous 4G stack developed entirely in India by C-DoT, Tejas Networks, and TCS was unveiled along with the commissioning of more than 97,500 mobile towers, including about 92,600 new 4G sites, built at a cost of approximately Rs 37,000 crore.
The rollout is part of a broader government mission to bridge the digital divide, especially in rural, border, and remote areas. Over 26,700 previously unserved villages across India including nearly 2,472 in Odisha alone are expected to gain connectivity through this effort. The towers are solar-powered, creating India’s largest cluster of green telecom sites, and are designed to be future-ready: the network can be upgraded seamlessly to 5G via software enhancements.
In his remarks, Modi framed the launch as a step toward transforming India from a technology consumer into a telecommunications manufacturing hub. He noted that with this indigenous stack, the country now joins a small group of nations like Denmark, Sweden, South Korea, and China that produce their own telecom infrastructure. Highlighting the societal implications, he said that better connectivity would aid students in rural areas to access education, farmers to obtain real-time market rates, and patients to use telemedicine services.
Officials also tied the launch to BSNL’s silver jubilee celebrations and introduced the Digital Bharat Nidhi initiative, which aims for 100 % 4G saturation by connecting about 29,000 to 30,000 villages under a mission-mode drive. The new infrastructure spans multiple states, including Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Gujarat, Assam, and Bihar.