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 Rs. 220 crore.
Speaking at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (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,” Modi said.
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.
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).
The testbed facility will be available at 5 different locations.
The launch took place during PM Modi’s address at a programme marking the silver jubilee celebrations of the TRAI via video conferencing. The Test Bed will enable a supportive ecosystem for Indian industry and startups which will help them validate their products, prototypes, solutions and algorithms in 5G and next-generation technologies.
TRAI was established in 1997 through the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India Act, 1997.