Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a major Tata Group company now recognised as a leading IT company across the world, is ready to help Indian enterprise customers with private 5G networks. TCS is not just a technology company, but it is also a system integrator (SI) and the company’s Chief Operating Officer, N Ganapathy Subramaniam, told ET Telecom that TCS is ready to work with customers across different verticals to help them adopt 5G led growth. Indian enterprises are allowed to purchase spectrum directly from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) or the telecom service providers (TSPs) for setting up their private 5G networks. Further, the enterprises can take the help of the telcos to do it, or they can ask another company to help them with their private 5G network setup. The spectrum has been sold to the telcos in India, and they are preparing for the 5G rollout. TCS can be a helping hand for enterprises, but it can never own the spectrum or become a licensee. The telcos are against the model where enterprises can get the spectrum for captive private 5G networks directly from the government.
TCS Already Working with BSNL on 4G, Which Can be Upgraded to 5G
TCS is already making its presence known in the hard-core telecom space by helping BSNL rollout the 4G network through India using homegrown technology. The interesting thing is that the 4G network being deployed by TCS for BSNL can also be upgraded to 5G. The role of captive private networks was bound to go up with the arrival of 5G in India. The telecom operators want that they should be the ones who should provide the private 5G facility to their enterprise clients. Otherwise, the telcos fear that their revenues from the rollout of 5G networks would be hit negatively as initially, they are counting on the enterprise customers to make them money instead of the retail consumers.
