5G services have been rolled out in 329 cities across all authorized service areas, Lok Sabha reported on Wednesday.

Population-scale solutions are being tested on native Indian 4G/5G stacks across platforms including health, agriculture, smart manufacturing, education, gaming and drones, said the Minister of State for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan, in a written response to the Lok Sabha. .

“5G services have been rolled out to 329 cities across all licensed service areas (LSAs),” Chauhan said.

The Center for Development of Telematics (C-DoT) and Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd (RJIL) have developed an indigenous 4G/5G technology stack. The proof of concept of the 4G technology stack of C-DoT has been successfully carried out in the BSNL network.

“RJIL’s stack is widely deployed as part of its 5G network rollout. These indigenous technology stacks may be exported to other countries in the future,” the minister said.

Meanwhile, on another question, Communications Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw said that BSNL’s 5G services will be provided after the rollout of 4G services across India.

BSNL launched a tender in October 2022 for 1 lakh 4G sites. The call for tenders was opened on November 23, 2022.

“The evaluation of the offer has been completed and is in the process of being submitted for approval by the Group of Ministers (GoM). 4G services will be launched across India including Maharashtra and the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the 18 to 24 months from purchase order placement,” Vaishnaw said.

Responding to a question on the merger of BSNL and MTNL, MoS Chauhan said the Cabinet, while approving the revival program of Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) on July 27, 2022, approved the formation of a committee of secretaries (CoS) for detailed consideration to resolve the issues of Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited (MTNL), including the merger of MTNL with BSNL.

To another question on Ott Communication Services, Chauhan mentioned that India’s Telecom Bill, 2022 released for public consultation in September refers to “OTT communication services” as a type of telecommunication service.

“The policy objective is that all forms of telecommunications, including OTT communication services, should be covered by law. The Telecommunications Bill will be further revised based on comments/ suggestions received during the public consultation,” Chauhan said. .