New Delhi: L&T Technology Services Ltd (LTTS) has entered into partnership with the state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) to deploy private 5G networks for enterprises in India.
This strategic partnership marks the entry of L&T’s arm into the private 5G landscape, with BSNL providing spectrum and network infrastructure, and LTTS offering enterprises devices, applications, technology, software, sensors, servers, and core integration within the network infrastructure.
A top official of the LTTS said that the engineering, research and development services providing division of L&T would focus on artificial intelligence (AI) at the same time as 5G, and will increase its workforce by five times to 1,000 in 2023, as part of its expansion drive.
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The company is also developing its proprietary BERT model, tailored for enterprise use, he added.
“This partnership is a perfect offering to enterprises with complementary network and digital capabilities coming from both organizations,” said Amit Chadha, the chief executive officer and managing director in an interview.
Chadha further said that the company was looking to expand its footprint in the global market as it starts offering the services from India.
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A senior officer of the BSNL corporate office confirmed the tie up with LTTS and said that 5G was the next big enabler, which can positively benefit the lives of millions of end-users. “We expect rapid adoption of private networks across use cases and major industries,” he said.
The LTTS will be exploring opportunities in healthcare, smart utilities, consumer and media applications, industrial manufacturing, and financial services with 5G intervention, which it sees a $1.3 trillion business.
Elaborating, Chadha said the company has its strength in areas of network maintenance, management, consulting, and rollout. “The total addressable market will be $70 billion globally,” he said, referring to enterprise 5G and its applications in augmented reality, virtual reality, and Internet of Things across sectors, including education and smart cities.
A market assessment by International Data Corp has foresee the private 5G market growth of more than $8 billion by 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of 35.7% starting 2022. Indian enterprises are increasingly deploying non-public networks as they require faster speeds and lower latency as industries move towards digitization and automation.
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The LTTS has to enter in to agreement with the BSNL, as the government regulation does not allocation of spectrum directly to private companies, which want to set up their own captive 5G networks. “Either they will have to buy the airwaves through auctions or they will have to rely on the telecom companies to take 5G spectrum on lease and then create networks for enterprises or partner with them to set up networks for own use,” explained the BSNL official.
Chadha said that while LTTS will be using spectrum from BSNL, 5G networks’ privatization, including the ownership of spectrum was the preferred way for companies. “We’re looking at it globally… Companies are coming to us from India, US, and Europe where the manufacturing units are located in far off, poor connectivity areas, and commercial service provider has no intent to establish networks because of (low) Arpu [average revenue per user]. So, it is in those areas we can step in and offer services,” he added.
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On the other hand, LTTS is increasing its workforce to develop solutions on AI from the existing 200 to over 1,000 within 12 months, and a majority of hiring will be done in India where most of its research and development labs are located. The company is developing use cases to strengthen 5G in medical, industrial and defence, and is working with various standard bodies to implement 5G related standards for launches in India, the US and Europe.
“We are talking with hyperscalers that will help us take to the next level. Our generative AI work will focus on autonomous driving, manufacturing and healthcare. We’re also working on a BERT large language model,” added Chadha.
