Network and equipment vendors have been playing a pivotal role in the expansion of the 5G network, helping telcos monetise 5G-Advanced services and integrate artificial intelligence (AI)-native architecture into their current infrastructure. Dr Kumar N. Sivarajan, Co-Founder and CTO, Tejas Networks share his views on the key business highlights of 2025, the evolving Make in India strategy and future focus areas…
What was your organisation’s standout strategic highlight in 2025? How is your portfolio helping Indian telcos monetise 5G-Advanced through FWA and network APIs?
The year 2025 was a landmark year for Tejas Networks. The company successfully delivered one of the world’s largest single-vendor radio access networks (RAN) and India’s first indigenously designed Swadeshi 4G/5G network. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited’s (BSNL) 4G service was officially launched by the Honourable Prime Minister on September 27, 2025 and the pan-Indian network comprising over 100,000 sites is currently carrying over 4 PB of commercial traffic daily. This achievement places India among a select group of countries that have indigenously designed, developed and commercialised a world-class and industry-standard 4G/5G mobility stack. Another major highlight for Tejas in 2025 was its emergence as one of the largest suppliers of routers for BharatNet Phase III. The company has been selected as the original equipment manufacturer (OEM) of routers for 7 out of the 12 packages announced so far. It is in the process of deploying over 50,000 TJ1400 internet protocol/ multiprotocol label switching routers across 57,000 gram panchayats and 2,000 blocks.
Tejas is playing a crucial role in the 5G ecosystem by developing cost-effective, scalable solutions tailored to local needs. In 2025, Tejas Networks continued to set new benchmarks in advanced wireless communications and expanded its mobility product suite beyond 4G to add a range of 5G RAN offerings, including high-capacity 32TR and 64TR massive MIMO radios, and a converged 4G/5G core solution.
Ojas64, our latest state-of-the-art 5G macro radio that delivers up to 320 watts of output power, was launched by Union Minister of Communications Shri Jyotiraditya Scindia in October 2025. Further, our TJ1400 UltraFlex baseband product provides unprecedented integration of wireless, broadband, transport and IP network technologies in one compact chassis, significantly reducing the cost of network build-outs for Indian telcos while enabling the delivery of both fixed (FTTX, FWA) and mobile broadband services (4G, 5G) from a single, unified platform.
As the Bharat 6G Mission progresses, how are you integrating AI-native architectures into current hardware to transition from simple network optimisation towards autonomous, self-healing systems?
As a leading research and development (R&D)-and intellectual property rights-driven company, we are committed to being at the forefront of technological advances and standards developments in our industry to build a future-ready organisation. Over the years, we have built a strong technology foundation in our company and will continue to invest in R&D to maintain our competitive advantage. Nearly 70 per cent of our employees are in R&D and are engaged in developing cutting-edge technologies and products for next-generation networks.
Tejas is actively contributing to 6G standards through its work in TSDSI, the Bharat 6G Alliance, ITU and 3GPP. In FY 2025, we set up a world-class wireless centre of excellence in Bengaluru that is working on frontier technologies, standards and architectures for 5G-Advanced and 6G. Besides AI-native communications, we are working on other advanced 6G technologies such as integrated sensing and communications, non-terrestrial networks and reconfigurable intelligent surfaces. Tejas made 100+ 3GPP contributions in FY 2025 alone and is committed to supporting the Government of India’s ambitious target to secure 10 per cent of global 6G patents by 2030.
How has your Make in India strategy matured under the design-led PLI scheme? To what extent does your Indian manufacturing base serve as a global export hub for core telecom equipment and indigenous IP?
The design-led production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme has been a game changer for
the domestic telecom industry and has given a massive boost to indigenous telecom R&D and manufacturing. By encouraging design-led manufacturing, it has kick-started a virtuous cycle of local innovation among domestic telecom equipment manufacturers. Tejas has received Rs 3.97 billion as PLI incentives during FY 2025 and the scheme has enabled us to significantly enhance our R&D and manufacturing capabilities to deliver projects at scale while expanding both the breadth and depth of our world-class portfolio to cater to a larger share of the global telecom equipment market. Our current focus is on leveraging these advantages to expand our customer base in international markets and realise our ambitious vision of creating a top-tier, global telecom and networking OEM in India over the next few years.
With the Telecommunications Act, 2023 now fully operational, what has been its biggest impact on your supply chain? What further policy steps are needed to strengthen the local component ecosystem?
The Telecommunications Act, 2023 is a historic first step towards realising Viksit Bharat by 2047. We are enthused by its emphasis on indigenous technology development by expanding the scope of Digital Bharat Nidhi to support R&D in telecommunication services, technologies, products and pilot projects. In order to further strengthen the local component ecosystem and design-led manufacturing in the country, we recommend that the government should introduce an R&D subsidy scheme that complements the RDI Fund to catalyse domestic private sector investments in R&D. The PLI scheme for telecom and networking products has been a huge success and should be extended for another five years with higher design incentives (currently only 1 per cent) linked to domestic value addition. The government’s Preference to Make in India scheme should also be expanded to cover both government and private sector entities. Telecom service providers may be offered incentives in the form of licence fee rebates to procure and deploy Class I products from local suppliers. This will reduce India’s telecom import bill and also help domestic players achieve global economies of scale.
Looking towards 2027, how are you balancing the demand for massive capacity with “green engineering” practices to meet India’s net zero mandates amid global supply chain volatility?
As a Tata Group company, Tejas Networks recognises sustainability as a foundation of its business operations. Our approach is focused on implementing strategic green engineering initiatives that generate long-term value while upholding and strengthening environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles across our entire value chain to foster inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Tejas actively tracks its operational carbon intensity related to electricity consumption, backup diesel generator use and water consumption at all its in-house manufacturing and R&D facilities. The company also actively engages with its suppliers and partners to reduce carbon emissions in its supply chain and minimise its carbon footprint arising from the use of external products and services. The organisation makes consistent efforts to embed environment-friendly thinking in all its product designs through careful subsystem selection, use of green components, adoption of renewable energy sources and efficient e-waste disposal. The company complies with the international ISO 14001 standard, ensuring the adoption of best practices in environmental management and contributing to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals.
