The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has approved a grant of more than Rs 500 million for 43 startups and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) to develop indigenous 5G equipment and technologies.
The grant has been approved under the Digital Communication Innovation Square initiative, under the Champion Services Sector Scheme. The government had invited applications for the scheme in April 2022 to foster an ecosystem of research, design, development, manufacturing and intellectual property rights (IPR) creation.
According to the Ministry of Communications, the grant will be used for developing telecom technologies such as 5G core, radio access network (RAN), network management system (NMS), IP multimedia subsystem (IMS), chipsets, devices, information and communications technology (ICT) solutions and applications enhancing deep tech, to create competencies in domestic entities and preparing the country for the roll-out of 5G.
The approved organisations include BKC Aggregators, Coral Telecom, Wising Networks, SASTRA University, and Versatile Antenna Systems, among others.
