BSNL and Nokia Start 5G Core Testing: Rural Connectivity and Indigenous Network Expansion

BSNL and Nokia 5G core advance testing with indigenous equipment, aiming to boost government-backed telecom expansion, rural connectivity and enterprise services across India.

A major step toward 5G has taken by BSNL and Nokia signnalling nationwide rollout soon. It is reported and seen BSNL and Nokia has already started their advance 5G testing which makes it obvious to users that we will soon see a super fast 5G network offered by BSNL. Searches are already seen with terms like, “indigenous 5G network India,” “BSNL Nokia 5G deal,” “BSNL rural 5G launch” and “BSNL 5G core testing” across the tech industry.  

From some sources it is reported that, to accelarate BSNL’s 5G deployment Nokia is supplying their core network infrastructure with all the necessary equiments to BSNL under a strategic partnership. The 5G testing phase will include several checks like, standalone (SA) architecture validation, integration with India-made radio units and interoperability checks. To reduce the dependance of Chinese vendors and with the Atmanirbhar Bharat scheme Government is also supporting the network upgrade. 

With Nokia’s 5G packet core and IMS systems BSNL is expected the rollout soon nationwide. Before making it available for mainstream consumers the operator is focusing on fixed wireless access (FWA), enterprise 5G and state-backed connectivity projects. Some trending discussions are seen on the internet with “government 5G adoption” and “BSNL 5G enterprise services.”

Here, it is a critical part to avail the 5G service on some Rural areas. The rural connectivity where the operator is now working on. In Tier 3 and Tier 4 regions BSNL is now aiming to launch their 5G-ready infrastructure with new fiber backhaul proposals and BharatNet Phase III. With the entities' collaborations like ISRO and OneWeb, BSNL is also going to release satellite-based backhaul. India is showing interest now in “rural telecom integration” and “satellite 5G India.”

With the spectrum in the 3300 MHz and 700 MHz bands we could see some significant improvements on indoor penetration and coverage. As per some analysts report, In sectors like smart cities, digital governance, healthcare and defense communication BSNL could work with some telcom giants Jio and Airtel as they are already working on these sectors. 

If testing goes well on some advance level use cases we could see BSNL is releasing the 5G rollout as a best network provider who focus on Speed and Accuracy.