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“While we were doing our proof of concept (PoC), we were also working on 5G<\/a>. As far as the 5G NSA is concerned, we will launch the BSNL network by August 2022. So, they can really start service, it will be 4G plus 5G,” Rajkumar Upadhyay, Executive Director & Chairman of C-DoT said, adding that the 5G NSA core will be ready by Independence Day this year.
Upadhyay was speaking in a panel discussion on India's Atmanirbhar (self-reliance) roadmap at The 5G Congress 2022, organised by ETTelecom.
Further, the top executive of a state-run company which is a part of a consortium to provide core equipment, said that BSNL’s 4G network has been “successfully completed”.
Mumbai-based Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)-backed consortium was shortlisted to undertake field trials in Ambala and Chandigarh to demonstrate next generation telecom network to be deployed at state-driven telco, following the following the withdrawal of rival consortiums led by L&T, HFCL, and Tech Mahindra.
“I think we expect BSNL to soon launch (4G) after commercial agreements have been put in place. A formal order has to come and we expect somewhere by August (this year) the service should start in BSNL,” Upadhyay said.
The C-DoT executive said that BSNL’s 5G SA deployment can be expected by Q3 of 2023. “We look forward to deploying 5G NSA by August and 5G SA by next year.”
Further, he said that India's research organisation is open to providing source code to vendors for facilitating customisation to indigenously develop products.
A top executive of state-run Telecommunications Consultants India Limited (TCIL), also in the panel discussion, said the firm is closely working with C-DoT for various products including the core network which is being indigenously developed for BSNL.
“C-DoT core has many innovative features which are not available even in a multinational's product. And the best feature which I would like to mention here is the converged core, which can work for both fixed and mobile network and it is very cost-effective compared to the product offering by any other company,” said Sanjeev Kumar, CMD of TCIL, adding that the converged core will allow telcos to offer both fixed and mobile service from the same network while maintaining low capex and opex.