New Delhi: In a major development in the telecommunication industry, The Indigenous 5G Test bed project funded by DoT has reached its final stages. The eight (8) implementing agencies viz IIT Bombay, IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras, IIT Kanpur, IISC Bangalore, SAMEER and CEWiT have been working over a period of 36 months.
Metros and big cities including Gurugram, Bangalore, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chandigarh, Delhi, Jamnagar, Ahmadabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Lucknow, Pune, Gandhi Nagar cities would be the first places for launch of 5G services in the country, next year as per the Department of Telecommunications (DoT).
Atmanirbhar Bharat initiative provides a big impetus to address current and future technology needs in telecom sector. The following initiatives are being driven in the next generation communication technologies including 5G, upcoming 6G, Quantum Communications etc.
Costing Rs 224 cr, the project is likely to be completed by 31 December, 2021, paving the way for end-to-end testing of 5G User Equipments (UEs) and network equipment by 5G stakeholders developing 5G Products/Services/Usecases, including indigenous Start-ups, SMEs, Academia and Industry in the country, said a statement.
The indigenous 5G test bed, a visionary technology development project initiated in telecom space, will enable development, testing and proliferation of 5G technology system components, cross-sectoral usecases, besides setting up foundation for the development of “6G Technology landscape” in the country.
According to the official release by the DOT, Broadband connections rise to 79 crores in June 2021 from 6.1 crore in March 2014, growing by 1200% manifesting an enormous growth. Internet connections jumped from 25.15 crore in March 2014 to 83.37 crore in June 2021, registering a growth of 231%.
Total telephone connections rose to 118.9 crore in September 2021 from 93 crore in March 2014, with a growth of 28 % in the said period. The number of mobile connections reached to 1165.97 million in September 2021. The tele-density which was 75.23% in March 2014 has reached 86.89% in September 2021, the statement added.
In a major improvement, India climbed 21 spots in Network Readiness Index 2021 (released on 2-12-2021), reached to 67th position. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in telecom sector rose by around 150% between 2014-2021 from Rs. 62,386 Crore in 2002 to 2014 to Rs. 1,55,353 crore during 2014-2021.
A total of 125 PDOAs and 63 App Providers have been registered by DoT and more than 50000 Access points have been deployed under PM-WANI.
