India’s Own 5Gi Technology To Be Merged With Global 5G Standards: TSDSI Chairman

Last Updated on January 31, 2022 by Anu Joy

On Friday, a senior executive of the Telecommunications Standards Development Society India (TSDSI) announced that 5Gi will be merged with 3GPP’s 5G, and the same standard will be implemented for the rollout of 5G networks in India. 5Gi is India’s home-grown standard developed by the TSDSI. This merger was first announced in December last year.

The TSDSI has requested the Telecommunication Engineering Center (TEC) to abandon the 5Gi adoption. It also announced that it will follow the 5G standard developed by the third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) and will not be updating the 5Gi specifications any further.

TSDSI Chairman N G Subramaniam said:

The move is a big step in enabling India’s objective of enhanced coverage across rural, remote, and urban areas. The merger of the 5Gi requirements into 3GPP 5G standards, enables a single common specification going forward, as well as creating a single radio access solution for 5G deployments in India and globally.

Good News for Telecom Bodies and Manufacturers

Telecom operators and private companies have always opposed the adoption of the 5Gi standard in India. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea were against adopting 5Gi standards, citing increase in network deployment cost. The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) also vehemently opposed the 5Gi standards and even sent a flurry of letters to the telecom department. The letters noted that the 5Gi standards will burden telecom carriers. Furthermore, a 5Gi mandate may also affect the consumer by driving up prices of 5G devices due to the cost of a new variant of chipset. 

TSDSI Chairman N G Subramaniam noted:

Auguring well for an enhanced collaboration among the organizational partners of 3GPP, there was a strong collaborative spirit among the global stakeholders to work together in next generation technologies leading to an enhanced rural coverage as 5Gi’s coverage-enhancing transmission mode becomes part of 5G NR specifications

3GPP’s 5G standard is being adopted by countries worldwide. Supporting a unified standard will allow manufacturers to produce devices on a large scale for various countries across the globe.