India’s 5G Testbed has been successfully tested at IIT Madras, and Union Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw has made the first 5G call

Union minister Ashwini Vaishnaw made the first 5G call on a testing network put up at IIT Madras using indigenously manufactured telecom equipment on Thursday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the country’s first 5G test-bed on Tuesday, established at IIT Madras, to allow startups and industry players to test and verify their ideas locally, reducing reliance on foreign facilities.

After making a video call using indigenously built 5G technology gear, the telecom minister stated that it is the realisation of the prime minister’s objective.

His (the Prime Minister’s) ambition is to have our own 4G and 5G technology stack, designed in India, manufactured in India and made for the globe. After making the call, Vaishnaw stated, “We have to conquer the globe with this entire technological stack.

The government anticipates that commercial 5G service deployment will begin in the country in August or September of this year.

Currently, telecom providers are only permitted to perform 5G service trials.

The 5G test-bed was created as a multi-institutional collaboration initiative directed by IIT Madras.

Due to the lack of a 5G testbed, entrepreneurs and other industry participants were forced to travel abroad to test and certify their technologies for deployment in a 5G network.

The project also included IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, and the Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER), and the Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).

The test-bed facility will have five sites.