BSNL Will Launch Both 4G and 5G NSA Network On August 15th, 2022: How Will It Work?

BSNL will launch its commercial 4G services along with 5G network in Non-Standalone (NSA) mode by August 15.

5G Plans

An official at the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) said that they were doing their proof of concept (PoC) alongside 5G. 

As far as the 5G NSA is concerned, he shared that they will launch the BSNL network by August 2022.

The plan is that once BSNL has established its 4G presence, it can utilise the 4G core and go with 5G non-standalone architecture (NSA) networks to deliver a homegrown 5G as well.

Consortium Providing Core Equipment

For now, BSNL’s 4G network has been “successfully completed”, according to an executive of a company which is part of a consortium which is providing core equipment.

The TCS-backed consortium was shortlisted to conduct field trials in Ambala and Chandigarh.

It took over after the withdrawal of rival consortiums led by L&T, HFCL, and Tech Mahindra.

4G In August, 5G SA Deployment

BSNL will soon launch 4G after commercial agreements have been put in place.

A formal order is required after which the 4G service will begin from August.

The C-DoT executive said that BSNL’s 5G SA deployment can be expected by Q3 of 2023.

India’s research organisation has expressed willingness to provide source code to vendors to facilitate development of indigenous products.

Collaboration Between Industry And Institutes

Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL) is working closely with C-DoT for various products including the core network which is being indigenously developed for BSNL.

Abhay Karandikar, Director, IIT-Kanpur spoke about increased collaboration between the academia and telecom industry.

The institute is engaged with C-DoT, Tejas Networks or Saankhya Labs, or TCS, and even multinationals like Qualcomm or Samsung, or Nokia.

Commercialisation Of Research

The industry is sponsoring the several projects that are running in different IITs.

Karandikar also said that nearly all IITs and academia have incubators which are creating new startups as a lot of research is getting commercialised.

He said that India is entering an era where there is a good ecosystem for industry-academy engagement.