Government coming up with indigenous 5G test bed to drive products, applications demo

It has been informed to Parliament that the government has set up an indigenous 5G test bed for Rs 224 crore for experimenting and demonstrating 5G products, applications and use cases.

Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan in a written reply to Lok Sabha said that the Centre for Development of Telematics (CDoT) and Indian startups are developing many 5G products.

The 5G technology has benefits like high speed, low latency, high connection density and greater reliability.

“Also, an indigenous 5G test bed has been set up at a total cost of Rs 224 crore to facilitate for experimenting and demonstrating 5G products/ applications/ use cases,” the minister said.

As many as 31 companies have been selected under the production-linked incentive (PLI) scheme for the manufacturing of telecom products.

“With the objective to build a strong ecosystem for 5G, the scheme guidelines for PLI scheme have been amended to facilitate design-led manufacturing of 5G products in the country,” Chauhan said.

Chauhan has also mentioned that the date of mandatory certification of 4G products covered under the third and fourth phase of Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecom Equipment (MTCTE) has been extended.

“Based on stakeholders’ requests, the date of mandatory certification of 4G products covered under phase-III and phase-IV of Mandatory Testing and Certification of Telecom Equipment (MTCTE) has been extended from 01.07.2022 to 01.07.2023,” he said.

The 5G products have not been notified under the mechanism to date.

There are not many labs available for testing the technical and other parameters of the 4G product.

To another question, the Minister said there is no proposal at present to facilitate the roaming facility in the Union Territories (UTs) of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to prepaid mobile subscribers.

“The Government has decided that the restrictions on prepaid roaming between UTs of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh and the rest of the country shall continue for the time being,” the minister said.