Team Blitz India
THE telecom sector in the country has witnessed significant developments in recent years, setting the stage for a transformative era. Driven by unprecedented data consumption, a vast user base, and a policy-friendly environment, India continues to foster industry growth and start-up innovation.
Today, India has 99 per cent coverage footprint in 4G with over six lakh villages covered in 4G and around 4.42 lakh 5G BTS.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is also establishing strategic international partnerships and collaborations to build a worldclass telecom ecosystem to enhance global connectivity and position India as a global leader in digital innovation and infrastructure.
Telecom diplomacy launched by DoT has helped attract new business ventures, forge partnerships with global leaders, nurture domestic startups and demonstrate India’s commitment to driving innovation and securing its leadership position in the global telecom landscape.
Strategic partnerships
India is engaged with partner countries, telecom chip companies and tech giants to forge strategic partnerships. The ‘US-India Open RAN Acceleration Roadmap’ was formalised a few months back to foster Open RAN adoption and mutual trust for suppliers.
Discussion on mutual recognition of security frameworks to improve easeof-doing-business and instill user confidence progressed considerably. Partnerships with tech companies like Qualcomm resulted in finalising the MOU for access to chips for startups through C-DOT. Similar efforts with Intel and AMD will provide mentorship to Indian startups. Support to 100 5G labs for developing use cases was also secured during the Mobile World Congress, Barcelona.
India showcased C-DoT’s solutions, especially the cell broadcast and the QKD solutions to the World Bank and Mauritius, indicating potential deployment in other countries. India was successful at the World Radio Conference, held in Dubai in December last year, to secure benefits for the country’s telecom and space sectors through the following decisions:
Leadership position
India’s active participation at the World Radio Conference resulted in safeguarding spectrum for Indian operations in airspace and sea from other country IMT operations and enabling future 5G deployments. India’s Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal was elected as the Co-Chair of the ITU Digital Innovation Board in March this year, which has enhanced the country’s role in shaping global digital innovation. Collaboration with partner nations and international bodies such as ITU, APT is crucial for India’s telecom growth as telecom sector/company can be benefited from the technology, patents and contributions to ITU, SEPs.
India Mobile Congress
The World Telecommunication Standardisation Assembly (WTSA) is being held in October 2024 for the first time in India in which over 2,000 delegates from 180 countries will participate and decide the future direction of standards for the next generation of telecommunication systems.
Significant efforts were undertaken to make India Mobile Congress (IMC) a global event like the Mobile World Congress by 2025 that will boost India’s economy by attracting international participants and investments. Tie-ups with PAN IIT USA, GSMA, IEEE, INSA have resulted in broadbasing the IMC 2024 into a worldclass event. During a visit to the US in January this year, DoT entered into an MoU with PANIIT to engage with experts in telecom from IITs for India’s projects for selection and mentoring. This was followed by the launch of the Future Tech Expert Portal, which facilitates expert engagement in mentoring Indian talent and academic and research collaborations.
Potential collaborations
The DoT explored potential collaborations in Quantum networks and Quantum teleportation with the University of Chicago to elevate R&D, foster innovation, and fortify the startup ecosystem in Quantum communications within India. A quantum teleportation link between the US and India is also being explored.
All these outreach efforts have succeeded in propelling India into leadership position in international fora, improving exports, build bridges with advanced countries, learning from the best practices and access to specialised knowledge from trusted partner countries.
