Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC), a technical arm of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday signed a memorandum of understanding with VVDN Technologies Private Limited, an Indian product engineering and manufacturing company working in various technology domains including 5G, Networking, IoT, Cloud and apps.

The pact was signed by A.S.Verma, DDG (MT), TEC and Puneet Agarwal, CEO, VVDN in the presence of Nizamul Haq, Member (Services), Digital Communication Commission (DCC), Department of Telecommunications.

The signing event was attended by R.R. Mittar, Sr. DDG, TEC; Prashanth Kumar DDG (MTCTE); Akhilesh Kumar Gupta DDG (RC) and other officers from both the organizations, a statement from DoT said.

The signing of the pact will facilitate registered startups, innovators and MSMEs working in the field of Open RAN to get their product tested at the existing lab of VVDN at Gurugram for interoperability among Open RAN components (RU/DU/CU) from different vendors along with radio conformance, protocol and interface testing as per defined Open RAN Standards at a subsidized tariff to be decided with mutual consent among pact partners.

The product offered for testing will be certified by TEC.

Such testing certification shall accelerate the research innovation in domestic design and manufacturing .It is expected that India could be emerging as a design leader in 5G/ORAN. This test certification eco system will make India as design testing and certification hub of Asia,  the statement said.

Both TEC and VVDN have agreed to collaborate and work jointly in the area of Open RAN testing during the tenure of the pact, which is five years from the date of signing.

This is the first of its kind pact signed by TEC as a step towards leveraging the existing Open RAN testing ecosystem in partnership with a private firm.