Ericsson and the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kharagpur have announced a partnership for a long-term cooperation for joint research in the area of radio, computing and AI (artificial intelligence). Both organisations have signed two milestone agreements. As part of the agreements, researchers from IIT Kharagpur and Ericsson will collaborate to develop novel AI and distributed compute tech for 6G. Leaders from IIT Kharagpur and Ericsson participated in discussing the developments and advancements for the future of networks and communications at the GS Sanyal School Telecommunications (G ..read more

While announcing its FY23 earnings, UK telecom company, Vodafone Plc said the Group’s carrying value of investment in Indian listed firm Vodafone Idea (Vi) is Zero. Also, that the Group is recording no further losses related to Vi.  The troubled-laden Vi is still in need of additional liquidity and plans to raise funds going forward.  In its FY23 report, Vodafone Plc said, “VIL remains in need of additional liquidity support from its lenders and intends to raise additional funding.” Vodafone seems to be backing away from Vi. The business needs more money, that Vodafone is certainly ..read more

Telecom partnerships, which generate 50-70% of overall revenues of OTT platforms [1.] in India, have failed to live up to expectations amid subscription pressure. As a result, many OTT services have adopted revenue sharing models, particularly for smaller platforms that struggle to attract viewership.  Payments are currently based on the number of views a specific content receives. In a competitive scenario with high customer acquisition costs, OTT platforms have to offer significant discounts to be available on telco aggregators, limiting their revenues.  Telcos are increasingl ..read more

Despite being very late in rolling out 5G [1.], without TSDSI’s 5Gi ITU-R standard, India is ONCE AGAIN talking up 6G.  Prime Minister Narendra Modi opened the new United Nations’ ITU  area office and Innovation Centre on Wednesday and revealed the Bharat 6G Vision document and launched the 6G R&D Test Bed. Note 1. Indian telecom service providers started to deploy 5G services in October 2022. The Indian government’s Bharat 6G vision document was prepared by the Technology Innovation Group on 6G (TIG-6G), which was formed in November 2021 to build a roadmap and action plans for 6 ..read more

Despite being very late to deploy 5G due to tardy licensed spectrum auctions, and with no known indigenous 5G network equipment vendors,  India’s Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw believes the country’s indigenous 4G/5G technology stack is “now ready” and the country is poised to emerge as a major telecom technology exporter to the world in the coming three years.  Speaking at the Economic Times Global Business Summit 2023, Vaishnaw, who is also the Minister for Railways, categorically said there is no program for the privatization of the national transporter. The 5G ..read more

Even as India’s long delayed 5G network roll-out continues at a rapid pace, the government has outlined plans for expanding 5G’s use beyond consumers and enterprises. In her Budget speech, Union Finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman called for the development of new applications and business models, which will also create more jobs.  There are plans to set up 100 labs in engineering institutions to develop applications and use-cases for 5G services.  It should be noted that GE setup India’s first 5G innovation lab in July 2022. “The labs will cover, among others, applications ..read more

Adani Group, the newest entrant in India’s telecom space, is looking to launch private 5G services for enterprises in 2023. The conglomerate also announced that it would be launching consumer apps this year as part of its digital strategy. Addressing his employees in the New Year,  Chairman Gautam Adani said they will invest in expanding the network of data centers, building AI-ML and industrial cloud capabilities, along with rolling out 5G services and launching B2C apps. “While we are fully invested in building India, it is an opportune time to contribute to nation-building ou ..read more

As 2022 nears an end, India based telcos like Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel have deployed about 33,000 base stations for 5G services. Sources in India’s Department of Telecommunications told businessline that the telcos deployed around 10,000 base stations in December, taking the cumulative number of base stations deployed for 5G services to about 33,000. [For another report on 5G base stations in India see; 20,980 base stations installed for 5G, about 2,500 being set up per week, Government tells Rajya Sabha | Headlines (devdiscourse.com)] Telecom operators commenced deploying the 5G ne ..read more

On December 13th, the chairman of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), PD Vaghela,  said that India will be the first country in the world to auction spectrum for satellite communications.  Noting that India’s telecom regulator (DoT was working on the matter, he added that TRAI will soon come out with ‘some sort of a model’ for the auction of space spectrum. Addressing the Broadband India Forum summit, Vaghela said that TRAI has received a reference from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on the allocation of the spectrum and other allie ..read more

India Telecom industry body Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) has reiterated that over-the-top (OTT) players should pay telcos for using their network. The payment can be done directly to the telecom firms on mutually agreed terms and in case a mutual agreement is not reached, an appropriate licensing and regulatory framework should be formed which governs the contribution of OTT players towards creation of network infrastructure. The association has highlighted that globally, the desirability of OTTs making a “fair contribution” to network costs of t ..read more