The Telecommunications Standards Development Society of India (TSDSI) has asked the Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC) to not go ahead with the 5Gi (India’s indigenous 5G standard) adoption as the national standard 5G technology. TEC is the department that operates under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). Private companies, as well as telecom bodies, were against the adoption of the 5Gi standard in India. According to an ET Telecom report, TSDSI has said that it will follow the 5G standard developed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP).
TSDSI Doesn’t Intend to Update 5Gi Specifications Further
For the unaware, back in December 2021, 3GPP had approved the merger of 5Gi with its 5G standard. TSDSI has committed that it doesn’t intend to update the 5Gi specifications further, and they will be merged with 3GPP’s 5G, and the same will be implemented in India for the rollout of 5G networks.
This is in line with what the telcos and industry bodies were asking from the government. Every ecosystem player, including the chipset vendors, were worried about the rising cost and the isolation of India when it came to 5G networks with 5Gi. The industry had asked for the merger of 5Gi with 3GPP’s 5G, which is what will happen now.
It will help everyone involved in the telecom and communications industry, including device manufacturers to service providers, in reducing costs to come out with new products and offerings. 3GPP’s 5G standard is being implemented by nations around the globe, and thus it gives the device manufacturers a comfort for producing gadgets and electronics such as chipsets, smartphones, tablets with 5G support on a massive scale for multiple countries.
Had India gone ahead with the 5Gi standard, the manufacturers would have to product specially for the Indian market by making tweaks in their production line so that the smartphones and other products could support 5Gi connectivity. It would have further meant that the Indian customers wouldn’t have been able to connect with the 5G network of a foreign nation as it would be running on 3GPP’s 5G standard.
