Long before Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke of Atmanirbhar Bharat, Indian companies were engaged in developing indigenous solutions for 5G telecommunications networks.
There’s strong demand for high-speed mobile data in India, with 97 percent of the country’s 700 million broadband subscribers getting their service wirelessly in July 2020, according to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India.
To increase capacity, network operator Jio is working on its own end-to-end 5G solutions, while companies like Saankhya Labs are focusing on radio units and Tech Mahindra is developing private 5G networks for other enterprises.
Some countries have already licensed spectrum for 5G services and, while India hasn’t taken that step yet, businesses here are busy developing their 5G solutions, whether in chipsets, hardware, open radio access networks or network management software, looking for a share of the local, and global, network infrastructure market. Here, Computerworld India takes stock of their progress.