DoT's 5G Hackathon: Funding, Mentorship & Labs access

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has launched the 5G Innovation Hackathon 2025. It is a six-month programme of the telecom department that would be used to create innovative prototypes based on 5G technology. The participants in the hackathons would be motivated to employ various 5G technologies including 5G network slicing, call flow scenarios, and so forth for solving the actual real-world issues faced by the customers. DoT shall provide the customers with funding, mentorship, and exposure to the 5G use case labs under the programme. 

The participants will also get assistance in commercialisation of their solution and additional assistance in Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) support. DoT asserted that this hackaton is available for postgraduate, undergraduate students, startups, and professionals. 5G is able to solve issues with proper use of technology in sectors like manufacturing, agriculture, and many more.

As in what usually transpires in hackathons, the telecom department will initially accept Proposal Submission. Here the concept will be floated to the telecom department with the problem statement and a solution proposed for the same. DoT shortlisting of about 150-200 applications will be the second phase. The top 25-50 ideas from here will proceed to the pragati phase under which they will receive Rs 1,00,000 each (seed fund) and a three month timeline (June 15 - September 15, 2025) to create a prototype of their solution. The use of the 5G Labs will be available to participants during this period. Help with the IPR as required will also be made available at this time only.

The evaluation and showcase phase, which will be the final step, will happen in September 2025. The India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2025 will allow the hackathon winners to present their concepts after they are revealed in October 2025. The top reward will be Rs 5 lakh, the second prize will be Rs 3 lakh, and the third prize will be Rs 1.5 lakh.