ITI will be able to produce 4G, 5G equipment in a few months: Tech Mahindra

IT company Tech Mahindra is in advance of sharing technology with ITI Limited, and in a few months, a senior official of the Mahindra group company said, the state-run electronics manufacturing organisation will be able to manufacture 4 G and 5 G equipment.

Tech Mahindra Network Services CEO Mr Manish Vyas told PTI that the country's ability to generate talent and software on a large scale, coupled with China's geo-political scenario, poses a wonderful opportunity for India to indigenize technologies.

In June, the company signed an agreement to develop 4 G and 5 G technologies with ITI Limited.

Mr Vyas said, "We are in the stages of exchanging design, starting to plan and also doing a couple of test runs and trials based on the technology that they are looking to manufacture. Pretty advanced stages, it's not something that will take years but months for them to start doing it and of course, it depends on how quickly they start winning business in this area".

He stated that the technology exchange partnership with ITI is in line with the strong desire of the government to bring the state-run business back to manufacturing high-end technology goods.

He further said, "We are going to be helping them with the reference design with the transfer of technology that will enable them to put together the process and the plans to start manufacturing the radio units which are very specific to both 4G and 5G going forward, to an architecture which is an open source, open radio access network-based architecture".

Under government law, ITI earns a certain quota to include equipment that can be installed in the BSNL and MTNL network of public sector telecom companies.

ITI has also secured a $7,796 crore contract for the Defence sector to develop communication networks.

Mr Vyas stated that it would be a great opportunity for them and other Indian producers to bring ITI back into high-end manufacturing.

He added, "This (India) market will require hundreds of thousands of radio units in the next few years globally. Millions I would say, and it will require a facility that people can trust, a country that people can trust, in terms of security from a data standpoint, I think it's a wonderful job. Our partnership is built around enabling them to be able to get back to manufacturing and to seize this moment and opportunity".

Tech Mahindra is already collaborating with Rakuten Mobile of Japan on 5 G technology development.

Mr Vyas stated that the organisation would not enter directly into the manufacture of telecom equipment but will assist companies worldwide in the growth of their network gears.

He said, "Tech Mahindra today works for every single major telecom firm outside China. Every single major service provider anywhere in the world, in every country that we care for, in the sense we operate in, in Africa and Latin America, in Europe and Australia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, Japan, America, Canada. It gives us an opportunity to participate with 150 operators globally. The world of opportunity exists for us across the board".

He further stated that in most of the countries where Tech Mahindra operates, all the top three or four service providers are its clients.

Disclaimer: This information has been collected through secondary research and IBEF is not responsible for any errors in the same.