India joined the list of 5G countries, the fifth-generation wireless Networks, on October 01, 2022, when PM Shri Narendra Modi unveiled 5G at the India Mobile Congress 2022. Within 100 days, the total number of cities enabled with 5G reached more than 200. At the 5G launch event, the Minister for Communications, Electronics and Information Technology and Railways, Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw, said telecom is the gateway of Digital India and that a strong telecom sector is needed in this period of transition, terming the day as a Golden letter day in the history of telecom sector in India.
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Speaking at the Economic Times Global Business Summit 2023 on Saturday, Vaishnaw said India had proven its mettle with its indigenous 4G/5G technology stack, which is "now ready", and the country is poised to emerge as a significant telecom technology exporter to the world in the coming three years, as per a PTI Report.
The 5G services were launched on October 1, 2022, and within 100 days, have been rolled out in 200-plus cities. The sheer speed of rollout has been appreciated by industry leaders globally and is being described in many international forums as the "fastest deployment happening anywhere in the world", Vaishnaw said.
Vaishnaw highlighted the large-scale solutions tested on India stack across platforms such as payments, healthcare and identity. Each of these platforms is powerful in itself, but together become a dynamic force that can solve "any major problem in the world". The minister said India is set to emerge as a telecom technology exporter to the world in the next three years.
"Today there are two Indian companies that are exporting telecom gear to the world. In the coming three years, we will see India as a major telecom technology exporter in the world," Vaishnaw said.
The minister talked of the rapid progress taken by India in developing its own 4G and 5G technology stack, a feat that caught the world's attention. "The stack is now ready. It was initially tested for 1 million simultaneous calls, then for 5 million, and now it has been tested for 10 million simultaneous calls," he said, terming it a "phenomenal success". At least 9-10 countries want to try the technology India has developed, he added.
C-DoT 5G NSA core
At the IMC, End-to-end indigenous 5G NSA call was demonstrated using C-DOT's Core and Radio Access Network (RAN) developed in collaboration with industry and start-ups.
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5G in India
Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are the two private telcos deploying 5G at a rapid scale in India. Vodafone Idea recently got approval for equity conversion and is exploring fund-raising possibilities for 4G and 5G deployments. In a recent move, the BSNL board recommended a TCS-led consortium to deploy 100,000 4G sites for the state-run telco's commercial highspeed network ambitions. Bharti Airtel's most recent 5G launch happened in 10 cities, and Jio's recent 5G launch happened in 21 cities.
