New Delhi: India is likely to see its own indigenous developed and manufactured 5G stack will be deployed in the roll-out of 5G networks in India, said Minister of Foreign Affairs (Communications), Devusinh Chauhan.
He added that the domestically developed set of 5G standards, called 5Gi, has been approved by the ITU (International Telecommunication Union) and 3GPPand was part of the global 5G standards.
“Our engineers have developed a set of 5G standards that will enable the spread of 5G networks in rural areas…these standards have been approved by the ITU and 3GPP and are part of the 5G standards,” Chauhan said Monday at the ITU Regional Standardization Forum.
The 5Gi standard, an initiative of the Telecommunications Standards Development Society (TSDSI) and academia, is a 5G Radio Interface Technology (RIT) for better coverage in rural, remote and urban areas. Telecom equipment manufacturers and operators in India opposed the standard, signaling interoperability issues and saying it would put an additional burden on 5G implementation.
ET reported in December that the national standard will be merged with 3GPP’s 5G standards. 3GPP is the global body that provides standards and specifications for telecommunications technologies.
Chauhan added that 175,000 villages now have fiber, while about 560,000 villages have 4G connectivity. The government has also drawn up a comprehensive multi-billion dollar plan to ensure fiber and mobile communications in all 600,000 villages by 2025.
Reply to the 5G rollout in the country, the minister said the government is promoting domestically designed, developed and manufactured advanced telecom technology.
“As a result, India today has a strong domestic 5G mobile communications ecosystem,” he said, which includes a fully native 5G testbed for private players to test. 5G network elements.
Chauhan said India’s telecommunications network is the second largest in the world, with the most cost-effective rates.
“We have initiated a number of structural and process reforms in the telecom sector. These have been able to promote healthy competition, protect consumer interests, boost liquidity, encourage investment and reduce the regulatory burden on TSPs (Telecom Service Providers),” said Chauhan. .
“A 5G indigenous testbed has also been set up at a total cost of Rs 224 crore to facilitate experimentation and demonstration of 5G products/applications/use cases,” the minister said.
As a result of the reforms, India’s recent 5G spectrum auctions saw bids of $20 billion, Chauhan said. “This reflects very well the confidence and sentiments of Indian telecom industry.”
The foreign minister added that 5G mobile services will be rolled out in the country in about a month, which will have multiplier effects on the development of all sectors.
He added that a 6G technology innovation group has also been established and is working on developing a native 6G stack.