India forms working groups to boost telecom exports

In a bid to help Indian companies grow their profile in the global telecom ecosystem, the Indian government has recently formed working groups to promote the export of telecom gear. 

They have been created within the Telecom Equipment and Services Export Promotion Council (TEPC) to address key focus areas of collaboration with OEMs and system integrators: wireline, optical and transmission, networking equipment; optical fiber and other cables; wireline access and enterprises solutions, IP phone, IP EPBX and sensors; 4G/5G/6G and future networks' core and radio networks; and EMS and component ecosystem for telecom equipment manufacturing. These groups are led by industry veterans. 

Why now?

This is a crucial step as several factors are coming together to help the country realize its telecom export ambitions. 

The first is the agreement signed between India and US earlier this year when Narendra Modi, India's prime minister, visited the US. The two countries launched two joint task forces focusing on 5G and 6G research and development, alongside open RAN.

The press note issued by the White House says that "public-private cooperation between vendors and operators will be led by India's Bharat 6G Alliance and the US Next G Alliance. We are partnering on Open RAN field trials and rollouts, including scaled deployments, in both countries with operators and vendors of both markets, backed by US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) financing."

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It also highlights participation by Indian companies in the US Rip and Replace Program, adding that another focus of the agreement should be a "Trusted Network/Trusted Sources" bilateral framework.

Several Indian telecom startups and established companies were part of the Indian delegation to the US and participated in the India-United States Defence Acceleration Ecosystem (INDUS X). 

This collaboration between the two countries goes a long way in boosting Indian telecom vendors' and startups' profile in the global telecom ecosystem. India would want to capitalize on this as much as possible to grow domestic companies' export revenue, and the working groups seem to advance this objective. 

Indian vendors believe they are ready to increase their presence. For instance, Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), India's largest IT services company, has been vocal about leveraging its global presence to export indigenously developed and manufactured 5G RAN to the US and other markets.

Tejas Networks, part of the Tata Group, is also keen to grow its export revenue. The company would be deploying BSNL's 4G network across the country, which would help it acquire business from global telcos. In addition, Reliance Jio is also keen to export its own 5G stack. 

Related:India tightens restrictions on Huawei, ZTE

What also helps Indian vendors is the development of open RAN, which is not as capital-intensive and is software-centric as traditional approaches to RAN. The country has already demonstrated its skills in the open RAN sphere. 

India's ambitions to emerge as a significant exporter of telecom gear are, to an extent, the result of the global distrust of Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE. Several countries, including the US, UK and Australia, have effectively banned the use of Chinese telecom gear, creating a space for new companies to tout their wares. Indian equipment makers are hoping to capitalize on this.