State-owned Indian telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) is aiming to launch 5G services by the end of next year.

That is according to a report from Moneycontrol, which states that BSNL will roll out 5G within six to eight months of meeting its March 2025 pan-India 4G rollout deadline.

“March 2025 is our internal deadline for a full-fledged 4G network availability in the country. We aim to have 5G switched on within six to eight months. The existing 4G sites will be upgraded to 5G with minor card replacement and a software upgrade,” an official told the publication.

Moneycontrol said that another official noted that BSNL's 4G Core will power the 5G network initially.

So far, BSNL has deployed 25,000 4G towers across India, in regions including Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Western Uttar Pradesh, and Haryana.

Last year, BSNL ordered $1.83 billion worth of infrastructure equipment and software from IT company Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) for the deployment of its 4G network.

The telco also signed a $900 million purchase order with Indian vendor Tejas Networks last year for the supply of equipment for its 4G and 5G rollout.

Earlier this year, the company said it was aiming to roll out 100,000 4G base stations across the country, though this has been set back until March 2025. It expects to hit 80,000 by the end of October, reports Moneycontrol.

Previous reports have suggested that BSNL is aiming for 20 percent of India's mobile subscription market share by the end of this year, however, this figure has increased to 25 percent by the end of 2025.

At present, the telco only commands a 7.4 percent market share, with 86.3 million customers as of May. The delay of its 4G rollout has seen the company lose subscribers.

India's 5G race has been dominated by Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel. Both carriers launched their respective networks in October 2022.

So far Jio and Airtel are the only two telcos to launch 5G, with cash-strapped Vodafone Idea (Vi) currently in the process of securing equipment for its network.

In January, Vi's CEO Akshaya Moondra said that its 5G launch is about "six to seven months away," but this is yet to materialize.