FSID, FITT, and C-DAC join forces to build India’s open-source 5G and 6G future

In a significant step towards building India’s own telecom infrastructure, three leading organisations, FSID at IISc Bengaluru, FITT at IIT Delhi, and C-DAC, have come together to develop open-source communication networks for 5G, 5G Advanced, and 6G technologies.

The Foundation for Science Innovation and Development (FSID), the Foundation for Innovation and Technology Transfer (FITT), and the Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC) have signed a key collaboration agreement. These three institutions are acting as the core “Strategic Partners” in a broader effort involving 16 more organisations from the telecom, R&D, startup, and academic sectors.

The joint initiative, called the Indian Open-Source Platform for Mobile Communication Networks (IOS-MCN), aims to build a high-quality, production-ready open-source codebase for mobile communication networks. It builds on the earlier IOS-5GN platform and has support from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY).

The initiative is being led out of Bengaluru, New Delhi, and other major technology hubs in India. The project is also backed by a distributed team of over 70 technical experts working across the country.

Although the formal agreement was signed recently, the consortium has already made significant progress. On January 31, 2025, they released the first version of their software, IOS-MCN Agartala v0.1.0. This version includes Open RAN-compliant radio software, a 5G core, and orchestration tools. The system has shown impressive results, with download speeds of 600–700 Mbps and latency under 10 milliseconds.

 This project marks a major step towards India’s self-reliance in telecom technologies. By creating open-source tools that follow global standards like 3GPP and O-RAN, the initiative is helping reduce dependence on foreign technologies and paving the way for cost-effective and scalable 5G and 6G solutions.

FSID, FITT, and C-DAC will jointly lead the IOS-MCN Operating Committee, managing technical direction, project delivery, and partner coordination. The initiative will bring together academia, startups, and telecom firms to co-develop solutions that can be adopted by the industry at scale.

With this partnership, India strengthens its vision for secure, open, and future-ready telecom infrastructure made in India, for the world.