An industry-government delegation is scheduled to visit the United States next week to explore the modalities of participation of Indian suppliers in the US rip and replace programme, as well as work jointly in the field of Open RAN (radio access network) and research and development in 5G/6G technologies.
The visit is a follow-up of the recent signing of India-US partnership in the area of telecom and technology at the G20 summit in New Delhi.
While the detailed agenda was not available, it is learnt that telecom secretary Neeraj Mittal is also expected to be part of the delegation. Industry sources said that there’s immense scope of collaboration between the two countries on key areas like 6G technologies and promotion of domestic telecom solutions.
Among the local telecom suppliers, companies such as Lekha Wireless, Signaltron, Resonous, Nivetti Systems, as well as DoT-owned Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) are part of the delegation.
Apart from the industry and government meetings, officials said these companies will also be participating in the Mobile World Congress scheduled to be held in Las Vegas from September 26 to 28 organised by GSMA. The companies have also been given space to exhibit their telecom solutions at subsidised rates in the Indian Pavilion section at the event.
“It is a very positive development as we will be talking to a large number of telecom firms in the US and understand their requirements,” said Ramu Srinivasaiah, founder and chief executive of Lekha Wireless.
According to Srinivasaiah, the market in the US for Indian companies is very large with as many as 300-400 mobile network operators.
Apart from smaller companies, large players like Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Reliance Jio, HFCL, STL (Sterlite Technologies), and Tejas Networks are also looking at a large pie of the US market with their telecom equipment and solutions.
On September 15, Pune-based STL launched its state-of-the-art optical fiber cable manufacturing facility in Lugoff, South Carolina. The company said the strategic investment and expansion efforts in the US is key to address the market demand for 5G, fiber broadband to home and enterprises, and rural broadband.
The US Rip and Replace Programme is aimed at moving away from Chinese players like Huawei and ZTE, especially with regard to already installed 4G equipment in the US and replacing that with modern, fully functional equipment, which not only involve less capital expenditure, but are also responsive to changing business needs.
The two countries have also signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Bharat 6G Alliance and Next G Alliance, operated by Alliance for Telecommunications Industry Solutions, as a first step towards deepening public-private cooperation between vendors and operators. The two countries will also be setting-up two joint task forces focused on collaboration in the field of Open RAN (radio access network) and research and development in 5G/6G technologies.