Is the 5G Hackathon 2026 still accepting applications?

No. The Department of Telecommunications opened the call for proposals on March 20, 2026, and closed submissions on April 17, 2026. If you're searching for it now, that window is shut, but the results are landing soon: DoT has set October 1, 2026 for announcing winners, with a showcase at India Mobile Congress 2026 (October 7 to 10, at Yashobhoomi, Dwarka, New Delhi) right after.

Who runs the 5G Hackathon and what is it actually called?

It's the 5G Innovation Hackathon 2026, run by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications, as the second edition of that named event under DoT's 100 5G Use Case Labs Initiative. An earlier, differently-named 5G & Beyond Hackathon ran in 2023, and TCOE India (Telecom Centre of Excellence) administers submissions through the 100 partner institutes, IIT Palakkad among them.

It's open wider than a typical campus hackathon: undergraduate and postgraduate students, startups, MSMEs, and working professionals can all apply, individually or in teams, by routing a proposal through one of the 100 5G Use Case Lab institutes acting as nodal centres.

What do teams actually build, and what do they win?

Proposals target 5G and 5G-Advanced use cases across AI-driven network maintenance, IoT applications, smart healthcare, industrial automation, network security, disaster management, agriculture, education, and quantum communication. The prize pool tops ₹10 lakh: ₹5 lakh for first place, ₹3 lakh for the runner-up, ₹1.5 lakh for second runner-up, and a ₹50,000 Best Idea award. On top of that, DoT set aside a ₹50 lakh seed fund, and reports put ₹1 lakh each toward prototype development for the top 25 to 50 shortlisted teams.

I missed the deadline. What should I do?

Watch the DoT eServices portal (eservices.dot.gov.in/5ghackathon) and TCOE India's site for the next call for proposals. Since this has now run in some form across 2023, 2025, and 2026, expect an annual cycle, typically a March or April application window judging by this year's pattern, so start reaching out to your nearest 5G Use Case Lab institute early instead of waiting for a press release.

5G Hackathon 2026: DoT's Innovation Hackathon, Explained

If you typed "5g hackathon 2026" hoping to find an open form to fill out today, here's the direct answer: you're a few months late for this round, but not too late to matter. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) closed applications for its 5G Innovation Hackathon 2026 back in April, and results are due any day now. That's actually useful information if you're trying to figure out whether this is worth your time next year, or whether there's still something to watch this week.

What this hackathon actually is

It's a government-run innovation challenge, not a weekend campus coding contest. DoT, under the Ministry of Communications, runs it as the second edition of the 5G Innovation Hackathon name, built on top of its 100 5G Use Case Labs Initiative, a network of labs spread across 100 institutes nationwide (IIT Palakkad is one of them, working through TCOE India, the Telecom Centre of Excellence, which handles submissions on DoT's behalf). An earlier, separately branded contest, the 5G & Beyond Hackathon, ran back in 2023 with smaller ₹1 lakh prizes and a showcase slot at that year's India Mobile Congress, so this program has been building for a few years now, not appearing out of nowhere in 2026.

Timeline: mostly already happened

March 20, 2026: Call for proposals opened.
April 17, 2026: Submissions closed.
October 1, 2026: Results declared (this is days away as you're reading this).
October 7 to 10, 2026: Winners showcased and awarded at India Mobile Congress 2026, held at Yashobhoomi (IICC) in Dwarka, New Delhi.

So the practical read: if you're finding this page before October 1, there's genuinely something to watch for. After that, this year's cycle is done, and the next move is watching for a 2027 call for proposals, likely opening in a similar March-to-April window based on this year's pattern.

Who was eligible, and what teams built

Unlike a lot of student-only hackathons, this one deliberately widened the door: undergraduate and postgraduate students, startups, MSMEs, and working professionals could all apply, solo or in teams, by submitting a proposal through one of the 100 partner institute labs acting as a nodal centre. That structure means your application effectively goes through whichever 5G lab institute you're routed to, not a single central portal review.

The thematic scope leaned into where 5G actually gets used in practice: AI-driven network maintenance, IoT-enabled applications, smart healthcare, industrial automation, network security, disaster management tech, agriculture, education, and even early quantum communication work. If your idea doesn't touch a live network or use-case lab in some way, this isn't the right contest for it, since teams needed access to the 5G test infrastructure at these labs to build and validate their solution.

What was on the table

A prize pool north of ₹10 lakh, split as ₹5 lakh for first place, ₹3 lakh for runner-up, ₹1.5 lakh for second runner-up, and a ₹50,000 Best Idea award for a standout proposal that didn't otherwise place. Separately, DoT earmarked a ₹50 lakh seed funding pool aimed at helping shortlisted teams actually build working prototypes, with reporting suggesting the top 25 to 50 teams each got ₹1 lakh toward that prototype stage. That structure, cash prizes plus a much larger separate seed pool, is a signal this is meant to produce real deployable products, not just a demo that gets forgotten after judging.

Don't confuse it with the similarly-named one abroad

If your search also turned up a "5G Innovation Hackathon" on Devpost, that's a different event entirely: a Pakistan-based contest run by telecom operator Jazz with NUST (National University of Sciences and Technology) in Islamabad, built around a 5G test bed at NUST's SINES lab. Same name, unrelated program, different country. If you're specifically after Indian opportunities, stick with the DoT/TCOE India track above.

If you're aiming for the next cycle

Since submissions route through your nearest 5G Use Case Lab institute rather than one central form, the highest-leverage thing you can do now is find out if your college is one of the 100 partner institutes and get on that department's radar before the next call for proposals opens. Waiting for a press release to notice it exists puts you behind teams who already have a relationship with their local lab.

Sources for this page: the PIB press release announcing the 2026 edition, DoT's own 5G Hackathon portal, Internshala's competition listing, The Hans India's coverage, and the IIT Palakkad call for applications confirming TCOE India's role in routing submissions through partner labs. The India Mobile Congress 2026 dates and venue are per its official show listing and coverage of the announcement at MWC Barcelona.

FAQ

Is the 5G Hackathon 2026 still accepting applications?: No. The Department of Telecommunications opened the call for proposals on March 20, 2026, and closed submissions on April 17, 2026. If you're searching for it now, that window is shut, but the results are landing soon: DoT has set October 1, 2026 for announcing winners, with a showcase at India Mobile Congress 2026 (October 7 to 10, at Yashobhoomi, Dwarka, New Delhi) right after.
Who runs the 5G Hackathon and what is it actually called?: It's the 5G Innovation Hackathon 2026, run by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the Ministry of Communications, as the second edition of that named event under DoT's 100 5G Use Case Labs Initiative. An earlier, differently-named 5G & Beyond Hackathon ran in 2023, and TCOE India (Telecom Centre of Excellence) administers submissions through the 100 partner institutes, IIT Palakkad among them.
Who can enter?: It's open wider than a typical campus hackathon: undergraduate and postgraduate students, startups, MSMEs, and working professionals can all apply, individually or in teams, by routing a proposal through one of the 100 5G Use Case Lab institutes acting as nodal centres.
What do teams actually build, and what do they win?: Proposals target 5G and 5G-Advanced use cases across AI-driven network maintenance, IoT applications, smart healthcare, industrial automation, network security, disaster management, agriculture, education, and quantum communication. The prize pool tops ₹10 lakh: ₹5 lakh for first place, ₹3 lakh for the runner-up, ₹1.5 lakh for second runner-up, and a ₹50,000 Best Idea award. On top of that, DoT set aside a ₹50 lakh seed fund, and reports put ₹1 lakh each toward prototype development for the top 25 to 50 shortlisted teams.
I missed the deadline. What should I do?: Watch the DoT eServices portal (eservices.dot.gov.in/5ghackathon) and TCOE India's site for the next call for proposals. Since this has now run in some form across 2023, 2025, and 2026, expect an annual cycle, typically a March or April application window judging by this year's pattern, so start reaching out to your nearest 5G Use Case Lab institute early instead of waiting for a press release.