As per industry sources, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is discarding its plan to push for the adoption of the local 5G standards. This decision has come in the backdrop of strong opposition from telecom companies.
The 5G Radio Interface Technology (RIT) (called 5Gi) is an initiative of the TSDSI together with academia. In India, telcos, gear, and chipset vendors along with handset companies and trade bodies have been opposing the incorporation of 5Gi as a national standard citing compatibility issues with 3GPP’s global 5G standard. Previously, telcos had urged the DoT and the Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) to merge 5Gi with 3GPP’s global 5G standard to achieve scale and bring down costs.
Lately, the Telecommunications Standards Development Society India (TSDSI) had abstained the TEC under the DoT from proceeding ahead with the adoption of 5Gi as a national standard for the fifth-generation telecom technology. In addition, TSDSI had made it public that it will continue to follow global 5G standards as local standards. Earlier, in December 2021, the third generation partnership project (3GPP) had given its approval for the merger of 5Gi with 3GPP’s global 5G standard. TSDSI has informed that it does not intend to further update 5Gi specifications.
