According to a US-based technology inventor, the growing global opposition to Chinese telecom equipment in light of the shifting geopolitical landscape may present a market opportunity for items built in India, with the Tata Group and Reliance Jio leading the pack of suppliers.

 

"We must build something (5G equipment) in India. I think that the first success day is going to happen in BSNL (Bharat Sanchar Nigam) by deploying 4G developed by the Tatas. Jio is also working on indigenous technology," AJ Paulraj, a Stanford University professor emeritus,. Due to the pushback on China, the US may help India, which can use the opportunity to develop locally produced equipment faster, he said.

 

The multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) technology, which is a key component of today's Wi-Fi, 4G, and 5G wireless networks, was developed by Paulraj. A high-level forum that had been established in 2017 to work on India's 5G strategy and research the spectrum requirements was led by him.

 

He highlighted that the US was already having difficulty producing (5G) technology domestically and that it was past time for India to develop telecom technology domestically.

 

"We must start in 5G. We should build some boxes ourselves. In those boxes, 95% component base is still to be imported, but 5% should be coming from Indian companies. We can start adding value in technology in our country," Paulraj said.

 

The government-run BSNL is getting ready to roll out its own 4G equipment, which will be provided by Tata Consultancy Services, which recently acquired the majority of Bengaluru-based Tejas Networks.

 

Additionally, for the deployment of BSNL's 4G network, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT), a state-owned telecom technology company, has created an interoperable 4G core equipment. C-DoT recently asserted that it had developed a 5G core for the non-standalone (NSA) mode.

 

According to Jio, its own 5G core was created in-house and complies with standards set by the worldwide third-generation partnership project (3GPP), an international technical organisation. The telco hopes to make 5G services accessible and inexpensive by utilising next-generation technology that has been created and produced domestically.