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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 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.
Addressing the event, PM Modi said in the eight years that his government has been in power, India has, through 5Rs, infused new energy in its telecom sector.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi said that 5G technology would contribute $450 billion to India’s economy in the next decade and a half.
PM 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. He expressed his support for the 5G technology, predicting that it will positively change the way the country is being governed.
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.
“I invite youth friends, researchers, and companies to utilize the testing facility for making 5G technology,” said PM Narendra Modi.
“It will also bring a positive change in ease of business and living. All sectors, including agriculture, health, education, infrastructure, and logistics. This technology will make things easy and also generate employment opportunities,” PM said. The 5G testbed has been developed as a multi-institute collaborative project by eight institutes led by IIT Madras.
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 five different locations.
The Prime Minister also announced that India should be ready to launch 6G services in the next ten years, for which a task force has already started its work.
