India, US, and Japan talk greater cooperation on 5G, telecom stacks

Telecom Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw's met with senior government figures from Japan, US over the weekend

Telecom Minister Ashwani Vaishnaw’s meeting with Japan’s Digital Minister Kono Taro and US Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo over the weekend focused on firming up greater cooperation on 5G, telecom stacks, and enabling tech, officials said.

The discussions were part of New Delhi’s move to create strategic partnerships with traditional allies focusing on emerging technologies, key among which is the country's current rollout of 5G, they told Business Standard.

Taro has reached New Delhi to prepare the ground for Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s visit to New Delhi next week and take in policy inputs for the G7 Digital and Technology Ministers’ Meeting in April hosted by Japan.

Strengthening industry cooperation between companies in the private sectors was also on the agenda, a diplomatic source said. Japan is also interested in being a part of India’s move to deploy its indigenous telecom stacks.

The Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) under the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is developing a full stack of sophisticated telecom equipment fully indigenously. This includes designing a fully indigenous non-standalone (NSA) 5G core.

It is also creating India’s first-ever indigenously built standalone (SA) 5G core, considered to be a technological improvement on the NSA core, by October, 2023. The first domestically developed 5G radio and antennas would also be ready in the next six months, along with the 5G Radio Access Network (RAN), C-DOT officials had earlier told Business Standard.

Vaishnaw’s meeting with Taro focused on accelerating cooperation between India and Japan on the same. The ministers have decided to fast-track cooperation on a range of telecom areas, including 5G technologies, telecom security, submarine optical fiber cable system to the Andaman islands of India, spectrum management, and high altitude platform for broadband in unconnected areas.

“In 2021, both nations had decided to step up mutual cooperation in many of these areas, but the pandemic and other geopolitical distractions had kept the focus on other parts of the bilateral relationship. It has now been decided to set up focus groups in these areas,” an official said.

Meanwhile, the meeting with Raimondo discussed ways to further the US. India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET) announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Joe Biden in January, earlier this year. Officials said US companies working in 5G-enabled technology areas, such as Verizon, were keen to test the Indian market.

Industrial use cases for 5G across health care, manufacturing, and communications through robotics and automation are stressed upon by Indian telecom companies as the biggest source of revenue in the near future. Raimondo was in India to attend the India-US Commercial Dialogue and CEO Forum to discuss cooperation in various sectors that could unlock new trade and investment opportunities.

Eye on the stack

18 countries interested in implementing India's indigenously developed 4G, 5G stacks 

13 foreign telcos have also evinced interest in end-to-end tech

10 million  calls successfully handled by the stacks

5 countries US, Sweden, Finland, South Korea, and China currently have such stacks