India’s Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) says state-owned telco BSNL will deploy its home-grown standalone 5G equipment in its network by the middle of next year.
According to PTI, C-DoT CEO Rajkumar Upadhyay said the company has developed its own 5G network equipment, including the 5G SA radio, core and IP Multimedia System, in collaboration with VVDN Technologies and startup Wisig.
That gear was showcased in a 5G SA demo at last week's India Mobile Congress 2023 in which C-DoT made a live video call to Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
“The technology that we demonstrated … will be deployed in the BSNL network in six to eight months after testing it thoroughly," Upadhyay said.
C-DoT – which is the R&D arm of the Department of Telecomunication (DoT) – has already developed its own 4G and non-standalone 5G core, which BSNL has deployed in the Punjab circle. BSNL currently plans to launch 4G services next month, and 5G sometime after June next year.
Upadhyay added that once its 5G SA gear is up and running in BSNL’s network, C-DoT will look to sell its technology overseas.
The DoT has been pushing for the development of homegrown telecoms equipment in the hopes of creating a hot new export market for India. In September, the DoT created eight working groups under the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC) for that very purpose.
