BSNL to launch 5G in Delhi, key cities by September-end: Officials

BSNL to begin 5G rollout in Delhi and select cities by September as 4G deployment crosses 93,000 towers with plans to scale further after first 1 lakh sites

State-owned BSNL is expected to meet the latest deadline of launching 5G services in Delhi and other select cities by the end of September, officials said on Friday. The telecom operator has completed testing 5G technology at most state capitals, at the new 4G sites installed as part of the ongoing 1 lakh 4G sites deployment, they said.

 

Most state capitals, including Jaipur, Lucknow, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Kolkata, Patna, Hyderabad, and Chennai, have seen 5G sites being activated, BSNL officials said. Most of these are newly installed 4G sites under the first phase of the 1 lakh sites deployment, they added. 

 

“A stepwise plan will be implemented to roll out 5G across telecom circles, after the first 1 lakh towers are found to be operating optimally and meeting quality-of-service requirements,” an official said. The firm is aiming to emulate the circle-wise rollout done for 4G, which went live in all four metro cities before December 2024.

 

Since October last year, Telecom Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said BSNL will roll out its 4G network nationwide by June 2025 by deploying 1 lakh sites and converting them to 5G in a month. More than 93,000 4G towers have been installed as of May, of which over 70,000 are now operational. The telco is set to install an additional 1 lakh 4G towers following the successful deployment of the first batch this month, Minister of State for Communications Pemmasani Chandrasekhar has said.

 

BSNL’s plans to launch 4G services — years after private telecom operators Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea—have repeatedly been delayed. As a result, BSNL’s customer base steadily declined as 2G users migrating to 4G chose other operators. BSNL’s mobile services market share stood at 7.82 per cent as of May 2025. But officials say the ongoing momentum in deployment is expected to see the network rollout plans through.

 

While the telco officially plans to begin 5G operations in the next three months, network infrastructure for the new technology is already being tested in telecom circles where BSNL has a strong presence, officials said.

 

“We are also rolling out base transceiver stations (BTS) in many cities across the country such as Kanpur, Pune, Vijayawada, Coimbatore, and Kollam,” an official said. A BTS is a fixed radio transceiver in a mobile network, most often in the form of a tower.

 

Earlier this week, BSNL’s chairman and managing director Robert J Ravi said 5G service would first be introduced in Delhi, utilising a Network-as-a-Service (NaaS) model. The company has begun offering free 4G SIM upgrades to its users in select circles. The upgrade from a 2G or 3G SIM will also provide users with 4 GB of complimentary 4G data with three months’ validity. 

 

Earlier this month, BSNL announced its own 5G fixed wireless access (FWA) solution, named Quantum 5G FWA, in Hyderabad. This will be followed by an expansion on a pilot basis in Bengaluru, Puducherry, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Gwalior, and Chandigarh by September. BSNL’s entry into the fast-growing segment — where Jio remains the market leader — is aimed at quick monetisation of services, officials added.