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NEW DELHI: Homegrown telecom startups and companies have commenced discussions with government-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) to conduct live trials of the fifth-generation or 5G technology in the public sector telco’s network.
The trials, which can be commenced in about one to three months, will also focus on captive non-public networks (CNPN).
The projects, which will primarily utilise BSNL’s holdings in the 700MHz band, have been proposed at locations such as Connaught Place in Delhi; Bengaluru; indoor government offices and campuses in Bengaluru; areas around Sanchar Bhawan and JNU Campus in the national capital; IIT Delhi; parts of Chennai; around the India Habitat Centre or parts of Gurugram; IIT Hyderabad campus, among others.
“BSNL is ready to give spectrum, towers, battery/power supply and other infrastructure support. Now they are looking for live 5G trials that the public can also use,” said RK Bhatnagar, director general, Voice of Indian Communication Technology Enterprises (VoICE) in a statement.
To this extent, VoICE held a meeting with Robert J. Ravi, CMD of BSNL on July 24.
VoICE is an industry grouping of indigenous telecom companies including Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Tejas Networks, VNL, United Telecoms, Coral Telecom, and HFCL.
The companies that have proposed conducting these trials include Lekha Wireless, Galore Networks, Velmenni, W4S Labs, Sooktha Consulting, and Coral Telecom, Amantya Technologies, VVDN, Bharat RAN Consortium, Signaltron, and Resonun, among others, with an emphasis on applications such as voice, video and data based on 5G or 5G fixed wireless access (FWA); network slicing proof of concept; seamless communication over private automatic branch exchange (PABX) and mobiles, etc.
ETTelecom previously reported about BSNL PoC policy which could make the company homeground for telecom startups and indigenous OEMs to validate their solutions.
Core network firms include Niral Networks, Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), and Galore, while 5G radio players include Lekha, Sooktha, while IMS can be offered by Coral, Netar.AI, and Amantya.Backhaul providers include Velmenni, Astrome, and NavTech Wireless, and antenna providers include Kenstel and Telimart. Network service management (NMS) and network analytics services will be provided by MatreComm and Echelon, while Sensorise is the SIM provider, and FWA equipment supplier will be United Telecoms Limited (UTL).
Nearly all companies have proposed that they can enter into a revenue-share model with BSNL in select circles for private enterprise solutions after the successful demonstration of live trials.
To recall, BSNL had inked pacts with Amantya and Echelon Edge to set up 5G CNPNs for enterprises.
In June 2023, the Centre approved the third revival package of Rs 89,047 crore for the ailing telco, which included the allotment of 4G and 5G spectrum through equity infusion. BSNL has been allotted airwaves in the 700MHz, 2200MHz, 3300MHz, and 26GHz bands.
The spectrum is expected to enable BSNL to provider nationwide 4G and 5G services, offer 4G coverage in rural and uncovered villages under connectivity projects, provide FWA, and services/spectrum for CNPN.
The government approved the first revival package for BSNL/MTNL in 2019, amounting to Rs 69,000 crore, followed by second revival package in 2022 with an outlay of Rs 1.64 lakh crore.
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