5G Network Expansion: India Adds Over 4,000 New 5G BTS in December 2025

Uttar Pradesh led the country with 60,168 5G BTS and the highest monthly addition of 639 sites. Maharashtra followed with 54,261 BTS, adding 491 in December 2025. Among other leading states, Tamil Nadu (37,735 BTS), Gujarat (35,413), and Karnataka (34,392) maintained steady growth, with Karnataka adding 368 BTS during the month. Kerala also stood out with 393 new BTS, indicating rapid growth relative to its size. Meanwhile, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Lakshadweep (UT), and Sikkim recorded no change in their 5G BTS counts.

Recent Subscriber Trends

According to TRAI, India’s wireless (Mobile and Fixed Wireless Access) subscribers increased from 1184.62 million at the end of October 2025 to 1187.48 million at the end of November 2025, thereby registering a monthly growth rate of 0.24 percent.

Recent Developments

“Union Minister for Communications, Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, on December 17, 2025, presented data on India’s 5G success and the growth of telecom exports before the Lok Sabha. He informed that India’s telecom exports have increased by 72 percent over the last five years, while imports have remained stable at the same level. These figures reflect the story of India’s growing self-reliance in the telecom sector,” according to the Ministry of Communications.

BSNL

State-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will soon roll out an additional 23,000 4G sites, and upgrade the network to 5G technology that includes using a revenue-share model to catch up with the private sector players.

“For 5G, there are a couple of variations that we are working on, including 5G-as-a-service. Firstly, some private players can install 5G equipment and BSNL can work with them on a revenue-sharing basis. Second is upgrading the existing 4G to 5G,” Minister of State for Communications Chandra Sekhar Pemmasani told ETTelecom.

Further, the minister said that once BSNL has a good 4G coverage, the telco would upgrade sites to 5G. “First, we have to get these additional 23,000 base transceiver stations (BTS) installed. We have close to 97,000 4G sites operational. Most of the quality issues have already been fixed.”

“We have no technical glitches whatsoever that we had in the earlier versions. So, because it’s an indigenous technology, it is in the process of development. There were a few quality issues in the beginning, which we have now fixed,” he was quoted as saying in the report dated December 29, 2025.

In May this year, homegrown Tejas Networks, a part of the Tata group of companies, received an advance purchase order (APO) for an additional 18,685 sites. However, BSNL is yet to award a final purchase order (PO) to the domestic consortium. On asking about the muted response to a follow-on order, Pemmasani reportedly said that the telco “wanted to make sure that whatever it needed must also be included in the new contract”.

Note: In the DoT report, the 5G BTS count for the Bihar circle was reported as 7,535, which did not reconcile with the national total of 518,854 5G BTS. When the figure was corrected to 27,535, the overall total aligned accurately. The discrepancy is therefore treated as a clerical error, and the 5G BTS count for Bihar has been presented as 27,535.

Also in India 5G BTS Series:

Nov 2025: India Adds Over 6,000 New 5G BTS in November 2025

Oct 2025: India Adds Over 4,100 New 5G BTS in October 2025

Sep 2025: India Adds Over 6,400 New 5G BTS in September 2025

Aug 2025: India Adds Over 5,600 New 5G BTS in August 2025

Jul 2025: India Adds Over 6,000 New 5G BTS in July 2025

Jun 2025: India Adds Over 4,000 New 5G BTS in June 2025