New Delhi, NFAPost: While speaking at the World Summit of Information Society (WSIS) 2022, organised by the UN body ITU in Geneva, the Minister of State for Telecommunications Devusinh Chauhan said that the government expects to roll out indigenously developed 5G technology by August this year.
IT major TCS and state-owned telecom research firm C-DoT are engaged in developing 5G technology indigenously which is likely to be deployed on the BSNL network.
Minister of State for Telecommunications Devusinh Chauhan said the government is also launching a research and development fund for funding the development of telecom technology.
“India has developed an indigenous 4G stack wherein 4G Core and Radio Access Networks (are) designed and tested in India. It helps the operators to choose any vendor, reduces the cost, and enables easier expansions. Indigenous 5G stack is also expected to be rolled out by August 2022,” said Minister of State for Telecommunications Devusinh Chauhan.
The minister also held bilateral discussions with Japan’s Vice Minister Yuji Sasaki for Policy Coordination where they discussed mutual cooperation in several areas, including 5G and the security of the network. Chauhan also held bilateral talks with Iran’s Communications and Information Technology Minister Issa Zarepour.
Two weeks back, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched a 5G Test Bed, developed as a multi-institute collaborate project led by IIT Madras involving around other 10 institutions in India.
The 5G testbed, made with an investment of Rs 220 crore, is expected to enable startup and industry players to test and validate their products locally and reduce their dependency on foreign facilities.
The other institutes involved in the project include IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering and Research (SAMEER) and Centre of Excellence In Wireless Technology (CoEIWT).
The Telecom industry in India is the second largest in the world with a subscriber base of 1.18 billion as of December 2021 (wireless + wireline subscribers).
4G indigeneousiation
Last month while speaking at the Smicon India Conference, Union Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw had said the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) will roll out indigenous 4G networks in a few weeks and 2,342 sites across India have been identified and approved by the Cabinet for this purpose.
The 4G telecom network is developed in the country by Indian engineers and scientists. Under this indigenous 4G network rollout plan, BSNL will install over 1.12 lakh towers across the country. The government has made a provision of Rs 45,000 crore for BSNL to roll out the 4G network.
On March 30, Ashwini Vaishnaw said that the indigenous 4G mobile network was prepared in the shortest possible time and was ready for rollout. He was replying to Congress MP Manish Tewari’s query during the Question Hour.
He also had said that after many years, state-owned BSNL was able to make an operating profit, following improvements in its services. The Union government is spending Rs 6,446 crore to improve mobile infrastructure in over 60,200 villages across India, he added.