Most of the base stations installed in India are not made in India.
New Delhi:
The Indian Army has introduced the first-ever indigenous chip-based 4G mobile base station, which it procured from Bangalore-based Signaltron through the government's e-marketplace portal, a top company official said.
Himamshu Khasnis, founder of Signaltron, told PTI that the chip used in the Sahyadri LTE base stations has been developed by Signalchip.
Earlier in 2010, Mr. Khasnis and his team founded fabless semiconductor company Signalchip to make chips for 4G and 5G networks.
“Signaltron built the entire system domestically using India's first chips for 4G and 5G networks developed by Signalchip. This is the first time that an Indian system running on an Indian chip for complex communications technology has been inducted into the army. The use of indigenous chips provides a high degree of control over the security of the system during its operation,” said Khasnis.
He said that last year the Indian Army had bid on GeM (Government e-Marketplace) for the supply of 4G LTE NIB (Network In a Box) solution.
“Signaltron proposed the Sahyadri NIB solution and successfully passed rigorous technical tests. Subsequently, Signaltron also won the competitive bid to supply the equipment. Weighing just 7 kg, Sahyadri Network In a Box (NIB) systems provide high-quality, secure wireless communications for audio, video and data applications,” said Mr. Khasnis.
He said the Sahyadri NIB can operate in both standalone and cellular modes and can work seamlessly with legacy analogue and IP telephony systems.
The majority of base stations installed in India are not made in India. Even the few that are made in India do not have indigenous chips in them, which is the most strategic and important part of modern electronic devices and equipment.
Signaltron has delivered 20 units to the military and the deployment of the base stations depends on their strategic requirements, Mr. Khasnis said.
“We have delivered twenty units to the army. The army itself decides when and where the base station should be deployed. Since they are light and mobile units, it gives them the flexibility to change the location according to their needs,” he added. .
Currently, there is no manufacturing facility in India for modern semiconductor chips. Signalchip designed the chip itself and owns the complete technology that the chips provide. In a model similar to leading semiconductor companies such as Nvidia, Qualcomm, Mediatek, etc., Signalchip also has its chips manufactured via third-party wafer fabs.
Mr. Khasnis said the Indian base station market is expected to reach around $24 billion by 2029.
“With the use of indigenous systems, significant savings on forex can be achieved and GDP can also be increased. There are significant market volumes available in India and globally. Modernization goals of various sectors such as defense, railways etc. are excellent opportunities for indigenous solutions,” he said.
Mr. Khasnis said that the CNPN (Captive Network-Private Network) 4G/5G market worldwide is expected to exceed USD 30 billion by 2030, which will provide great opportunities for the local chip-based base stations, thereby achieving economies of scale will yield.
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