27-Feb-2019: Signal chip unveils India’s first indigenous semiconductor chips for 4G/LTE and 5G NR modems
Secretary, Telecom, Mrs. Aruna Sundararajan said that Data Security is the paramount concern in the World today and India cannot remain secure in terms of data, unless it manufactures its own chips. She was speaking after unveiling of India’s first Indigenous Semiconductor Chips by Bengaluru based semiconductor company “SIGNALCHIP” for 4G/LTE and 5G NR MODEMs in New Delhi. Terming the launch of the Chip as tremendously significant, Mrs. Sundarajan said that India is just breaking into the elite club of the world and this will have huge implications for India’s data security and data sovereignty, besides the positive economic implications. She informed that at present only 8 companies and a few countries can design and build semiconductor chips and launch of Indigenous Chip is in a real sense Make in India for the World. She said, the pioneering work will lead to a whole new architecture of tower building mainly in the light of emission complaints and growing environmental concerns.
Mrs. Sundararajan said that when US and China are battling it out for the core ICT technology, India cannot lag behind. She said, even the high powered Committee formed by the Government of India and headed by Stanford University professor A.J. Paulrajto outline a road map for 5G telecom services has suggested breaking into the IPRs of 5G. She said, the launch of a world class product by SIGNALCHIP is start of the Third Wave, after Software and IndiaStack as First and Second wave.
She also congratulated the Founder and CEO of SIGNALCHIP Mr. Himanshu Khasnis and CEO of global company ZOHO, Sridhar Vembu for joining together to write India’s most amazing success story.
Mrs. Sundararajan unveiled four chips at the event designed by SIGNALCHIP.
SCBM3412: a single chip 4G/LTE modem including the baseband and transceiver sections in a single device
SCBM3404: a single chip 4X4 LTE baseband modem
SCRF3402: a 2X2 transceiver for LTE
SCRF4502: a 2X2 transceiver for 5G NR standards
The RF sections cover all LTE/5G-NR bands upto 6GHz. These chips also support positioning using India’s own satellite navigation system, NAVIC. The Agumbe series builds up on SCRF1401: India’s first RF transceiver chip for high performance wireless standards like 3G/4G and WiFi, created by Signalchip in 2015.
The combined multi-standard system-on-chip (SoC) can serve as a base station chipset for a wide range of form factors from low-cost indoor small cells to high performance base stations. These are optimally designed to support evolving network architectures like Open RAN/CRAN with flexible interface configurations. Through the IPs created for this device, the company now has the potential to design products for multiple related fields and is currently forging ahead with additional chipsets for advanced 5G NR features. With India having more than 1.1 billion mobile phones in use, one of the highest in the world, Signalchip has created high performance and cost-efficient systems to enable densification of the network.
23-Dec-2018: China launches its first satellite in Hongyun project
The first satellite in the Hongyun project was launched on Dec 22 at the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center.
Planned by China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp (CASIC), the satellite will be part of the country's first low-orbit broadband communications satellite constellation, marking the start of construction of a low-orbit broadband communication satellite system and the first step for building a space-based internet service.
The satellite is tasked with verifying basic designs of the Hongyun project and demonstrating low-orbit broadband communications technologies. It adopts the millimeter wave phased array technology into a low-orbit broadband communication satellite for the first time, which can offer more flexible service modes by using dynamic beams.
More follow-up experiment and application demonstrations of low-orbit space-based internet services will be carried out.
Due to environmental factors like deserts, mountains and oceans, part of the world's population have no access to the internet. The Hongyun project aims to tackle this problem.
According to planning, the Hongyun project will place 156 satellites in orbit at an altitude of about 1,000 kilometers, hoping to build a global broadband mobile internet and provide connectivity to users in China and around the world, especially those in underdeveloped regions.
The Hongyun project is scheduled to complete constellation satellite placement around 2022. When it is qualified for full operation, the project will offer a seamless broadband mobile communication service globally and set up a comprehensive information platform for various users.
Upon its completion, users will be able to enjoy the same Internet speed and service in a desert, on an ocean or in a plane as they can at home.
The CASIC-implemented Hongyun project aims to set up a vast space-based communications network that can provide low-orbit broadband Internet service worldwide and realize low-orbit navigation enhancement and diversified remote sensing based on space-based internet access capability.
The whole project is divided into three phases: the first phase will launch the first satellite at the end of 2018; the second will launch four operational test satellites at the end of the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-20); the third will complete the construction of the fully-operational space-earth integration system by the middle of the 14th Five-Year Plan (2021-25).
On Mar 3, 2017, the Tiankun-1 technology demonstration satellite, developed by the CASIC, was launched, signaling that CASIC is independently capable of developing all kinds of typical spacecraft.
14-Dec-2018: Shri Ravishankar Prasad launched a web portal for reporting of stolen mobiles for tracing purposes.
International Mobile Equipment Identity (IMEI) is supposed to be an unique identity of a mobile phone device. Generally, a phone with one/two slots of SIM card is programmed with one/two IMEI number as the case may be. IMEI number being programmable, some miscreants do reprogram the IMEI number, which results in cloning of IMEI causing multiple phone devices with same IMEI number. As on date, there are many cases of cloned/duplicated IMEI handsets in the network.
If such IMEI is blocked, a large number of mobile phones will get blocked being handsets with same IMEI causing inconvenience to many genuine customers. Thus, there is a need to eliminate duplicate/fake IMEI mobile phones from the network.
Accordingly, a project called Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) system has been undertaken by the DoT for addressing security, theft and other concerns including reprogramming of mobile handsets.
The major objectives of the project include following:
- Blocking of lost/stolen mobile phones across mobile networks thus discouraging theft of mobile phones.
- Facilitate in tracing of such reported lost/stolen mobile phones.
- Prevention of mobile devices with duplicate and fake IMEIs in the network.
- Curtail the use of counterfeit mobile devices.
- Reduced health risks to the users with the control of use of counterfeit mobile phones.
- Improved QoS and reduced call drops with reduction in use of counterfeit mobile devices.