BSNL Will Launch Made In India 4G, 5G Network By August 15; TCS-Led Consortium Spent Rs 225 Crore

On Wednesday, a top official of the government-run telecom research firm said that by August 15, the indigenously developed 4G and 5G network technologies by TCS-led consortium with C-DoT shall be deployed.

Indigenous Development For Only $30 Million

Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director of Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) speaking at the Convergence India event said that for the development of technology for which global telecom giants invest billions of dollars, has been developed indigenously at a cost of around USD 30 million.

He said that “I am happy to report that soon you will hear good news that we are going to complete this job, and soon this network will be deployed in BSNL network. It will not be 4G alone. 5G NSA (non-standalone access) will be deployed by the Independence Day this year”.

At an employee event, BSNL Chairman and Managing Director P K Purwar said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi wants BSNL to deploy 4G services by August 15.

In order to roll out 5G services at par with private telecom operators in the country, spectrum should be allocated to BSNL, recommended the Standing Committee on Communications and Information Technology.

Trials for 4G networks are being conducted by BSNL, with a TCS-led consortium which includes C-DoT as a technology partner.

Upadhyay said that “This consortium is led by TCS which is a software power in itself. What was preventing us earlier was the hardware. Today my 4G core is totally virtualised”. He added that the technology developed by the consortium runs on a standard personal computer (PC).

He said that “If you want to run a small network you can run it on a PC. If you want to run it for a carrier like BSNL, it will require 30-40 servers. Because of softwarisation, now companies like TCS have a much bigger role.”

Government Provision of Rs. 45,000 crore

For the 4G network rollout, a provision of Rs. 45,000 crore has been made by the government for BSNL.

He added that for Indian companies, C-DoT is now opening up its technology development details. Also, for the development of technologies it shall fund startups.