Modi inaugurates BSNL indigenous 4G stack, 97,500 towers in Odisha

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday inaugurated Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limiteds indigenous 4G stack and commissioned more than 97,500 mobile 4G towers at an event in Jharsuguda, Odisha, part of a broader rollout of development projects worth over Rs 60,000 crore across telecom, railways, higher education, healthcare and housing. Officials said the rollout, unveiled on BSNLs silver jubilee, aims to expand connectivity in remote, border and leftwing extremism affected areas and to position India among a small group of countries that manufacture homegrown telecom equipment.

Union communications minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said the indigenously developed, cloud based 4G stack will be deployed across nearly 98,000 sites nationwide and is upgradable to 5G. He said more than 92,600 of the commissioned sites were installed by BSNL, featuring a radio access network developed by Tejas Network, a core network by the Centre for Development of Telematics, and integration by Tata Consultancy Services. Scindia added that around 4,700 additional towers were installed by Reliance Jio Infocomm and Bharti Airtel, and that 14,180 towers under the Digital Bharat Nidhi saturation project have...