The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) said it has signed an agreement with homegrown telecom equipment maker VVDN Technologies and IIT Hyderabad-incubated startup WiSig Networks to develop 5G Open RAN products and other equipment.

“The synergistic collaboration aims to leverage the complementary strengths of telecom R&D and industry to accelerate the indigenous design, development & deployment of end-to-end 5G solutions,” an official statement said.

C-DoT is the Department of Telecommunications’ R&D arm, and has indigenously developed a 4G solution. It is also working in the area of 5G.

The collaboration further seeks to create indigenous intellectual property and create new avenues for wider adoption and monetization of homegrown 5G products and solutions, the statement added.

Open Radio Access Network (RAN) allows disaggregation of network equipment components, enabling a telecom company to source hardware and software from different vendors for network buildouts.

Open RAN is especially gaining traction in the wake of 5G rollouts across the globe. It is perceived that disaggregation will enable smaller players to participate in building networks, while preventing vendor lock-ins for telcos.

“We have taken a big step towards development of indigenous 5G technology with the involvement of Indian partners for addressing the needs of the country and exploring the export market,” said RajKumar Upadhyay, Executive Director, C-DoT, at the agreement signing ceremony.
Upadhyay remarked that R&D and industry complement each other and reiterated C-DoT’s commitment to promoting indigenous design and development of 5G technology in line with the government’s vision of “Gati Shakti” and “Atmanirbhar Bharat”.

“VVDN will work with C-DoT and WiSig in O-RU design which includes indigenously developed hardware and software. VVDN’s design, development, manufacturing and testing capabilities in the 5G space makes it a preferred partner,” said Puneet Agarwal, CEO, VVDN Technologies.

“WiSig is delighted to be part of this initiative led by C-DoT to build indigenous 5G network infrastructure equipment,” said Kiran Kuchi, Founder, WiSig Networks.

Kuchi added that through this partnership, the startup will offer advanced massive MIMO and other stacks running on competitive platforms in terms of stability, reliability and performance. “Our RAN solutions will address the needs of public telecom networks, trusted and critical networks as well as private networks.”