Telecom technology development requires large capital for R&D

Telecommunication technology development requires significantly large and patient capital for research and development (R&D) and commercialisation, the Economic Survey said on Monday.

To address this, the government has decided that an allocation of five per cent of annual collections from the Universal Services Obligation Fund (USOF) would be made available for funding R&D in the telecom sector, the Survey tabled in the parliament said.

The government informed that at present, it has a corpus of around ₹80,000 crore collected under USOF which has now been renamed as Digital Bharat Nidhi, adding that the Telecom Technology Development Fund formulated in 2022 has seen significant participation from start-ups, micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), academia and industry.

The Survey also highlighted that the usage and underlying technologies of telecommunications have undergone massive changes, especially in the past decade. The Telecommunications Act 2023 was enacted to amend and consolidate the laws on telecommunication services and networks, assignment of spectrum and related matters.

“The total number of mobile towers in the country is 8.02 lakh as of June 2024 while number of base transceiver stations (BTSs) stood at 29.37 lakh and 5G BTSs were 4.5 lakh. The government has also initiated the project for saturation of 4G mobile services with a total cost of ₹26,316 crore in 24,680 uncovered villages in remote and difficult areas,” it said adding that 6,279 villages have only 2G/ 3G connectivity which would be be upgraded to 4G.

The Survey mentioned that BharatNet project is being implemented in a phased manner to provide broadband connectivity to all (2.50 lakh) the Gram Panchayats (GPs) in the country. The project has been amended to expand the scope with a focus on utilisation of services, using professional agencies for construction, upgradation and maintaining the network.

It said 6,85,501 km of optical fibre cable (OFC) has been laid, 2,11,021 GPs have been connected by OFC and a total 2,12,229 GPs are service-ready (OFC+ Satellite), as of April 30, 2024. Fibre to home (FTTH) connections and pilot projects to enhance data usage are also planned across rural areas, it added.

It also said that test labs for telecom equipment are important for ensuring the functionality, reliability, and interoperability of telecommunications devices and therefore, more than 69 labs have been designated as conformity assessment bodies for electromagnetic interference/ electromagnetic compatibility (EMI/EMC), safety evaluations, technical requirements and radio frequency (RF) testing of telecom products.

“These specialised facilities are equipped with advanced testing infrastructure to evaluate the performance of various telecommunications equipment such as routers, switches, base stations, and communication protocols,” it said.

The Survey also noted that the government has introduced guidelines for the Spectrum Regulatory Sandbox (SRS), or Wireless Test Zones (WiTe Zones), as part of the Millennium SRS initiative to foster innovation, enhance ease of doing business, promote “Make in India” in the telecommunications sector.

“This initiative provides a simplified regulatory framework to facilitate R&D activities, promote exploration of spectrum bands and drive technological advancements. Wireless Test (WiTe) Zones have been categorised into urban or remote areas for experimentation across various frequency bands, with eligibility extending to academia, R&D labs, telecom providers and others,” the Survey added.