Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, Chief Executive Officer, C-DOT
Over the years, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) has emerged as a growth engine for indigenous innovation, delivering several mission-critical national projects. These include the 4G/5G core network, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered fraud management systems, cybersecurity and disaster management platforms, quantum communication solutions and secure communication systems for strategic stakeholders. The organisation is currently helping the country realise its Bharat 6G vision, developing advanced security solutions, shaping policies for quantum-resistant networks, and actively engaging with the start-up ecosystem to strengthen India’s telecom self-reliance. In an interview with tele.net, Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, Chief Executive Officer, C-DOT, talks about the organisation’s transformation and recent achievements. Edited excerpts…
What have been C-DOT’s key achievements during 2025?
The year 2025 marked a defining phase for C-DOT. One of our most significant achievements was the nationwide roll-out of India’s indigenous 4G network. C-DOT designed and developed the indigenous 4G/5G core that forms a critical component of the Bharat 4G Stack. Its live deployment across the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) network, inaugurated by the honourable prime minister in September 2025, was a historic milestone in India’s telecom journey. It positioned India as the fifth nation globally to develop such technology indigenously and significantly strengthened national security.
In the area of telecom and enterprise security, we deployed large-scale cybersecurity solutions capable of proactively detecting millions of threats targeting critical infrastructure. Further, our cyber security product, TRINETRA, is helping many organisations prevent cyberattacks. These platforms directly support India’s strategic and national security objectives.
Public safety was another major focus area. We operationalised ITU-CAP-based early warning systems and 3GPP-compliant cell broadcast solutions nationwide. These platforms integrate all telecom operators, key alert-generating agencies and the 36 state disaster management authorities on a unified framework to deliver near-real-time disaster alerts, saving thousands of lives.
C-DOT also developed and deployed the “Sanchar Saathi” platform for the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), which has played a critical role in mitigating cyber frauds. The platform has enabled the detection and disconnection of over 35 million fraudulent mobile connections involved in various kinds of frauds. In addition, the CIOR platform was launched to curb international spoofed calls masquerading as Indian numbers, blocking 13.5 million such calls on the very first day of operation.
Organisationally, C-DOT has transformed from a legacy research and development laboratory into a mission-critical national technology institution, with revenues growing from about Rs 0.8 billion in 2020-21 to Rs 5.66 billion in
2024-25. In parallel, we initiated focused research programmes in 6G, quantum communications and AI, positioning India early in next-generation global technologies.
With the indigenous 4G stack now operational on nearly 100,000 BSNL sites, what were the most significant technical hurdles that were resolved in 2025?
The scale of deployment of the indigenous 4G/5G non-standalone (NSA) network is unprecedented for a home-grown telecom system anywhere in the world. In 2025, our foremost challenge was transitioning from successful field trials involving a few thousand sites to sustained, carrier-grade operations across nearly 100,000 sites.
Today, the C-DOT-developed core is powering over 171,000 base stations deployed across 100,000 sites, handling approximately 4.5 petabytes of traffic.
The key technical challenges included ensuring high availability across a highly distributed national footprint, maintaining deterministic latency during peak loads, and optimising signalling efficiency to support massive subscriber concurrency. To address these, we undertook deep optimisation of our cloud-native core, re-architected data-plane acceleration using software-defined networking principles, and strengthened end-to-end observability for predictive fault management.
Equally important was operational hardening to meet carrier-grade expectations. Our focus in 2025 was on stabilising automated recovery mechanisms, streamlining large-scale provisioning and enabling seamless upgrades with minimal service impact –
capabilities that are essential for any commercial telecom core but particularly
challenging to achieve on a national scale for a newly deployed indigenous system.
Collectively, these efforts ensured that the network not only functioned reliably, but also delivered consistent performance on a national scale,, reinforcing stakeholder confidence in indigenous telecom infrastructure.
What is the road map for transitioning the current 4G core to 5G standalone (SA)? Will C-DOT’s 5G solutions be exported in 2026?
Our road map follows a clear and progressive evolution aligned with global market realities. The core currently deployed in the BSNL network already supports 5G NSA and is capable of servicing 5G radio networks. Globally, most operators have adopted NSA due to its cost efficiency while delivering performance close to 5G SA.
However, as advanced applications such as ultra-low-latency services, network sli
cing and mission-critical use cases mature, 5G SA will become essential. Accordingly, we are enabling full 5G SA capabilities through modular upgrades that introduce micro-services-based architecture, native network slicing, ultra-low-latency paths and provide robust support for enterprise-and industry-grade use cases.
By 2026, we expect our 5G SA core to be fully mature and ready for large-scale deployments across carrier, enterprise, internet of things and mission-critical domains.
On the international front, there is growing interest from several Global South nations seeking trusted, affordable and sovereign telecom solutions. Our value proposition lies in the delivery of trusted technology, interoperability with legacy systems, customisation to local requirements and long-term sustainability, which resonate strongly in these markets. I am confident that 2026 will witness the first international deployments of C-DOT’s 4G/5G solutions, marking India’s transition from a telecom importer to an exporter of core network technologies.
The Sanchar Saathi app has crossed 18 million downloads. How is C-DOT utilising agentic AI and deep-learning models to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated KYC scams and international caller-ID spoofing?
Telecom security has become an increasingly adversarial and fast-evolving domain, with fraudsters leveraging automation, AI-generated identities and cross-border spoofing techniques. To address this, C-DOT has embedded intelligence at the core of citizen-facing and network-level platforms such as Sanchar Saathi, which was rolled out by DoT. This platform is closely integrated with stakeholder systems so that any fraudulent connection does not remain isolated in one system but gets flagged to all stakeholder systems in real time. This website has more than 2.3 billion hits, underscoring its popularity among citizens.
Reporting by citizens on the platform and AI-based backend analysis have led to the disconnection of 35 million fraudulent connections using this system. This platform is integrated with other platforms like CEIR (Central Equipment Identity Register), which helps detect fraudulent IMEIs (international mobile equipment identity) in the system and also blocks and traces lost or stolen mobile phones. So far, citizens have managed to get 4.6 million stolen or lost phones blocked. Out of these, 2.8 million phones have been traced by the platform. Many state police departments are handing over the phones back to their owners through recovery enabled by this system.
You raised the issue of international calls coming into our country disguised as Indian numbers using spoofing technology. Our CIOR system blocked 13.5 million calls within 24 hours of its launch and is able to block all spoofed calls coming into our networks.
We are deploying deep-learning models trained on large, anonymised data sets to identify behavioural anomalies in subscriber onboarding and device usage patterns. Agentic AI systems enable continuous monitoring, correlation across multiple data sources and adaptive response mechanisms, flagging suspicious activity in near-real time.
At the organisational level, we help enterprises set up security operation centres to manage cyber threats and attacks using our TRINETRA suite of cybersecurity products.
The prime minister presented a 10-point agenda on disaster risk reduction at the Asian Ministerial Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held in New Delhi in November 2016. Given that many lives are lost during natural calamities, what technology solutions has C-DOT developed to address this?
C-DOT’s disaster management initiatives have delivered large-scale, tangible benefits by ensuring the timely dissemination of critical information, enabling citizens and authorities to act quickly and minimise loss of life and property.
One of the most impactful outcomes is the nationwide ITU-CAP-based early
warning system (SACHET), developed for the National Disaster Management Authority. SACHET delivers geotargeted
alerts to citizens in areas affected by impending disasters and is fully integrated with alert-generating agencies such as IMD, CWC, DGRE and INCOIS, as well as all telecom operators and all 36 state
disaster management authorities.
Recognising that certain disasters, such as tsunamis, lightning, earthquakes and gas leaks, allow very little reaction time, C-DOT rolled out a nationwide Cell Broadcast solution in 2025. This platform enables disaster management authorities to reach millions of users almost instantly during emergencies, without requiring internet connectivity or prior user registration.
Together, these systems have significantly enhanced disaster preparedness, response time and public awareness, directly contributing to improved citizen safety.
With 36 start ups incubated under Samarth, which disruptive technologies from the first cohort, such as Li-Fi or drone-based 5G, are closest to large-scale commercial pilot deployment?
Several innovations emerging from the Samarth ecosystem are rapidly transitioning from proof-of-concept to pilot-scale deployment. Li-Fi solutions for secure indoor connectivity, particularly in defence, healthcare and industrial environments, are nearing readiness for controlled commercial pilots.
Drone-based communication platforms for disaster response, border surveillance and temporary network restoration have demonstrated strong performance in field trials. AI-driven network optimisation tools are also delivering tangible operational cost savings for telecom operators.
What is particularly encouraging is the maturity these start-ups demonstrate, not only in technology development, but in systems thinking. They are building deployable, standards-aligned solutions, which significantly reduce the path to commercial adoption.
C-DOT’s role extends well beyond incubation. We act as a deployment catalyst by providing access to mentors, national-scale test beds, enabling integration with live networks, guiding start-ups on standards compliance and security requirements, and facilitating direct engagement with public and private sector adopters.
As we look towards 2030, how is C-DOT leading the quantum-safe transition for government as well as private networks?
India’s digital security ecosystem is approaching a critical inflection point. Cryptography underpins trust across governance, finance, telecommunications, defence and critical infrastructure. However, advances in quantum computing threaten to under mine the mathematical foundations of current encryption systems.
Quantum computing will fundamentally alter existing security assumptions. Due to its exponential computational power, widely used encryption mechanisms will eventually become vulnerable. This makes quantum communication and post-quantum cryptography essential for long-term security. Recognising this early on, C-DOT has adopted a structured and phased approach to preparing India’s telecom and communication infrastructure for a post-quantum world. We have developed and deployed quantum key distribution and post-quantum cryptography-based systems in live environments and supplied them to universities as well to accelerate research and build a skilled talent base.
On the ecosystem front, C-DOT and IIT Madras jointly operate a quantum communications hub under the National
Quantum Mission (NQM), supporting the development of indigenous products.
The NQM has constituted a task force to implement a quantum-safe ecosystem in India. As chairman of this task force, I have submitted a detailed report to the Department of Science and Technology, outlining the actions required by all stakeholders and time frames to complete these actions. The report has been released for public consultation.
C-DOT has evolved from a switching pioneer to a global 6G contender. As we look at the next decade, how is C-DOT positioning itself within the ITU standards process to ensure that India remains a technology creator rather than just a consumer of 6G?
6G represents a generational inflection point, not just technologically, but in terms of global leadership in telecom innovation. C-DOT views 6G as a strategic opportunity for India to transition from standards adoption to standards leadership.
In collaboration with partners, we are actively contributing original technical inputs to the ITU and other global standards forums, covering areas such as AI-native network architectures, spectrum efficiency
and sharing, sustainability and energy-aware design, and the integration of terrestrial and non-terrestrial networks.
Equally important is domestic alignment. C-DOT is working closely with academia, start-ups, industry and government stakeholders to ensure that India presents a coherent, credible and forward-looking position in global standards processes.
Over the next decade, our objective is to demonstrate meaningful leadership by contributing foundational ideas, reference architectures, and use-case definitions that shape the global evolution of 6G, firmly positioning India as a technology creator rather than merely a consumer.
