On Tuesday May 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi inaugurated the country’s first 5G testbed which has been developed by leading institutions to support Indian Industry and startups to validate their products, prototypes, solutions and algorithms in 5G and next generation technologies. The testbed has been set up at a cost of around Rs. 220 crore.

The 5G testbed is launched via video conferencing at the silver jubilee celebrations of the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Prime Minister said the 5G testbed is an important step for self-reliance in the direction of critical and modern technologies. “I invite youth friends, researchers and companies to utilise the testing facility for making 5G technology,” Modi said.

The 5G testbed has been developed as a multi-institute collaborative project by eight institutes led by IIT Madras. The other institutes that participated in the project include IIT Delhi, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Bombay, IIT Kanpur, IISc Bangalore, Society for Applied Microwave Electronics Engineering & Research (SAMEER) and Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT).

In the absence of a 5G testbed, startups and other industry players were required to go abroad to test and validate their products for installation in a 5G network.

The testbed facility will be available at 5 different locations.