PM Narendra Modi inaugurates India’s first 5G testbed

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday inaugurated the country’s first 5G testbed to enable startups and industry players to test and validate their products locally and reduce dependence on foreign facilities. The testbed has been set up at a cost of around ₹ 220 crore. Speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India or TRAI, the Prime Minister said the 5G testbed is an important step for self-reliance in the direction of critical and modern technologies.

“I invite youth friends, researchers and companies to utilise the testing facility for making 5G technology,” PM Modi said. “Connectivity will play a pivotal role in the growth of the nation. 5G will help in improving governance, ease of living and ease of doing business in India,” Modi noted.

The 5G testbed has been developed as a multi-institute collaborative project by eight institutes led by IIT Madras. In the absence of a 5G testbed, startups and other industry players were required to go abroad to test and validate their products for installation in a 5G network.

Release of the Postal Stamp, TRAI Souvenir & a short film on #25yearsofTRAI’s journey by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi ji @narendramodi via @TRAI pic.twitter.com/QxQiI9NPgD

— TRAI (@TRAI) May 17, 2022

The other institutes that participated in the project are IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER) and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).

Launch of 5G Test Bed for use by the industry & startups at @iitmadras, @iitdelhi, @IITHyderabad, @IITKanpur & @iiscbangalore by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of India Shri Narendra Modi ji @narendramodi via @TRAI #25yearsofTRAI #5GTestBed pic.twitter.com/ClnUF4x5eb

— TRAI (@TRAI) May 17, 2022

“In the last couple of years, TRAI has worked closely with the Government of India and service providers to create an ecosystem which is crucial especially today as the industry readies to usher in 5G to catalyze the digital economy. We will continue to work in alignment with TRAI and hopefully put up suggestions and recommendations which are beneficial for the sector. We are thankful to TRAI for their exceptional work until now, appreciate their hard work done for the sector, and look forward to many more fruitful years of working together,” Lt. Gen. Dr. S.P. Kochhar, Director General, COAI mentioned.

5G testbed will support the telecom industry and startups involved in the sector to validate their products, solutions, and prototypes in 5G and next-generation technologies as well.

The Prime Minister said that the ‘whole of government approach’ is important for the regulators like TRAI also for meeting the present and future challenges. “Today regulation is not limited to the boundaries of just one sector. Technology is inter-connecting different sectors. That’s why today everyone is experiencing the need for collaborative regulation. For this it is necessary that all the regulators come together, develop common platforms and find solutions for better coordination”, the Prime Minister noted.

(With inputs from PTI)

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