Emergency broadcast messages resumed, C-DOT CEO says

Image for representation | Photo Credit: Getty Images/iStock The emergency cell broadcasting service (CBS) to send alerts to telecom users has “already resumed” for extreme weather events and natural disasters in India, the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT)’s CEO Rajkumar Upadhyay told The Hindu last month in an interview ahead of the organisation’s 43rd foundation day.The system, developed by C-DOT and operated by State Disaster Management Agencies (SDMAs), had briefly been after a late-night alert was erroneously sent in central Delhi.“One message has to reach every operator’s core and every kind of radio — Motorola, Siemens, ZTE, Huawei — and even within one vendor, a 2G version-1 radio differs from version-2,” Mr. Upadhyay said. “We wrote 300 to 350 adapters. It took us six months just to deliver one garbled message on MTNL — and when that garbled message came through, we were thrilled, because we knew we’d cracked the method.” Germany-headquartered Utimaco, a global provider of the technology, had sued the government in the Delhi High Court over the government handing over the CBS project to C-DOT, which is state-owned. The court ruled in the government’s favour, while leaving the door open for the firm to pursue damages for what it said were administrative irregularities in awarding the implementation of CBS to C-DOT.At a C-DOT war room, information from different agencies, ranging from weather statistics to train statuses was being displayed in real time. The room represents what SDMAs have access to when deciding to send out alerts. The entire system was made in house at C-DOT.Telecom indigenisationWhile C-DOT is known for enabling rural telephone exchanges in the last century, the Union government has charged the body with coming up with domestically manufactured alternatives to telecom gear. “People ask, wasn’t it foolish to do 4G in 2020,” Mr. Upadhyay said, referring to C-DOT’s mandate to build gear for BSNL’s 4G rollout. “I say: when you construct a building, you lay the basement, then the ground floor, then the first floor … We consciously started at 4G — which is exactly why converting to 5G, then 6G, becomes much faster.”Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s “atmanirbharta” push was a “turning point” for C-DOT, Mr. Upadhyay said, pointing out that BSNL’s 4G stack was painstakingly tested and optimised over a period of months to perform to the expected standard. However, telecom gear is dominated by a handful of firms; ZTE, Huawei, Nokia and Ericsson, along with Samsung, account for the majority of telecom gear makers. Those firms’ positions are bolstered by so-called “standard-essential patents (SEPs),” which are proprietary technology baked into 4G and 5G standards itself that require royalties to be paid out for competing technologies. “Anyone implementing the standard has to pay the holder,” Mr. Upadhyay pointed out, highlighting the barriers to reaching the frontier in telecom research with true sovereignty. “The terms [of these SEPs being shared with other vendors] is supposed to be fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory, but that’s only on paper; 3GPP [the standards body for mobile generations] has no obligation to mediate, so it ends up in court.”Mr. Upadhyay said that India would need to build research and development to a much stronger level. He said he was optimistic that with C-DOT’s work and the catch-up in India’s telecom deployment, the policy space for indigenisation would open up. “”In 4G we were 10 years behind; in 5G about four years,” Mr. Upadhyay said. “In 6G everybody is at the same place — so India may actually have a chance, if all the stakeholders — industry, academia, government — go to 3GPP cohesively, as a country. The 6G vision says: get at least 10% of the IPR. If I hold 10%, I’m at the table. If I don’t, I’m not at the table.” Published - September 04, 2026 03:51 pm IST