4G to be passé soon! 5G is just round the corner and look what India is doing to be an early adopter

India wants to be an early adopter of the fifth generation of wireless networks-the 5G, which will allow consumers to connect with billions of devices like driverless cars and household appliances apart from getting great speed.

In a bid to fulfil its 5G dreams, a government commissioned-research team has already started working on the 5G technology and 10 out of 100 patents have been granted.

It is expected that 5G will be commercially rolled out by 2020.

A team of researchers from IISc Bangalore, IIT Bombay, IIT Hyderabad, IIT Madras and CEWiT (Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology, IIT Madras) are working on the same and will register a lot more patents in the next few years. Most of these patents have been filed simultaneously in the US and in India.

"We are scaling up fast and switching gears because 5G is just around the corner,” Kiran Kuchi, a professor at the department of electrical engineering at the IIT-Hyderabad, told ET.

Even private players such as Reliance Jio, Tata Teleservices and Tejas Networks are partnering in the effort by lending their manpower and equipment.

"This is the first time that India has contributed at this level on the global stage. This is a coherent, long-term and a result-oriented project. The fact that we are trying to take so many patents into the global 5G standards will benefit the Indian industry hugely,” said Kuchi.

The research project, which was commissioned by the ministry of electronics and IT, was approved in September 2015 with an outlay of Rs. 36.51crore over a period of three years.

IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad had said the research team will also jointly develop advanced simulators and technology prototypes and the IP developed in this project will be contributed for 5G standardisation.

Recently, China also hinted at its ambitious 5G plans and rolled out trials.

(Image: Thinkstock)

5G is capable of delivering speeds of over one 1 gigabit per second and support several devices at once.