India has successfully inaugurated the first 5G testbed that will allow industries to test their products. That is the domestic enterprises will be able to test and utilize the homegrown 5G infrastructure to validate their products and reduce reliance on foreign services.
The Indian PM Modi had turned the switch on for the county’s first-ever 5G testbed on Tuesday, May 17th. The project came at a hefty cost of 220 crores and will be available in 5 locations.
Mr. Modi later spoke on the 5G testbed at the silver jubilee celebration of TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India). He admired it as a significant step towards self-reliance in the direction of critical innovation and technologies.
Meanwhile, India’s Railway and ICT Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made the first 5G call on Thursday, May 19th on a custom network as IIT Madras. For this, the Indian institute used its own indigenous telecom infrastructure. Following the first-ever 5G call, Vaishnav posted on Twitter saying, “Aatmanirbhar 5G. Successfully tested 5G call at IIT Madras. The entire end-to-end network is designed and developed in India,” Vaishnav said in a social media post.
Also read: 5G Or 5Gi? India’s Local 5G Standard Stirring Debate
PM Modi on 5G testbed launch
Similarly, Indian Prime Minister Modi also sounded jubilant upon the launch of India’s first 5G testbed. “I invite youth friends, researchers, and companies to utilize the testing facility for making 5G technology,” he said.
India’s 5G testbed is a collaborative effort of multiple institutes led by IIT Madras. Altogether there were 8 institutes involved in the set up of the 5G testbed. These involved IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER), and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).
With the 5G testbed infrastructure in India, businesses won’t have to depend on foreign services. Previously, Indian companies had to go abroad to test and validate their products to install in a 5G network. This dependency has finally ended. Don’t miss: Vodafone Idea Records 3.7 Gbps Peak Speed in 5G Trial
the 5G network could bring up to 1 Gbps speed with the potential for much more in mobile broadband far exceeding the strength of the current 4G standard. This could transform our way with connectivity and help in the digital transformation of services and the economy.
India is planning on a commercial 5G launch by August-September this year.
Similarly, Nepal is also gearing up for the 5G launch and that could happen this Nepali calendar year. How eager are you to test the fifth-gene mobile broadband capacity on your smartphone? Do share in the comments below.
