The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, has signed a five-year agreement with the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DOT) to establish an End-to-End Optical Network Test Bed aimed at accelerating the development, testing and commercialisation of indigenous optical communication technologies.
Funded and supported by DoT, the state-of-the-art testbed will be established at the C-DOT campus in New Delhi. It will provide Indian startups and industry players with a real-world environment to test and validate optical communication solutions and help bridge the gap between laboratory-stage innovation and market readiness.
The agreement was signed on August 27, 2026, by representatives of DoT and C-DOT in the presence of Alok Shukla, Advisor (Technology), DoT; Dr Rajkumar Upadhyay, CEO, C-DOT; and Atul Kumar Singh, DDG (Networks & Technologies), DoT.
Strengthening optical communication ecosystem
The publicly funded initiative is designed to accelerate the development and deployment of home-grown optical communication technologies, supporting the government’s vision of Aatmanirbhar Bharat and strengthening India’s capabilities in next-generation communication infrastructure.
The testbed will bring together C-DOT’s field-ready technologies spanning optical core, optical access and quantum security. It is expected to act as a common platform for startups, industry, researchers and other stakeholders to validate technologies under real-world network conditions before commercial deployment.
The facility will also support skill development and capacity building in advanced optical communications. Students, researchers, startups and industry professionals will have access to hands-on training and exposure to next-generation optical networking technologies.
The End-to-End Optical Network Test Bed will function as a shared national resource covering innovation, testing, validation, skill development and commercialisation.
Two-phase implementation
The initiative will be implemented in two phases over five years.
Set-up phase: The first two years will focus on establishing the testbed infrastructure, covering optical core, optical access and quantum security components. Advanced third-party testing and measurement tools from established vendors will also be integrated before the formal rollout of the facility.
Operations and maintenance phase: Years three to five will focus on maintaining the testbed, providing technical support to ecosystem users and conducting targeted educational and outreach programmes.
The initiative is expected to provide Indian telecom technology developers with a dedicated platform to move promising optical communication solutions from research and development to field validation and eventual commercial deployment.
Building indigenous telecom capabilities
C-DOT, the telecom technology research and development centre under the Department of Telecommunications, has been developing indigenous, secure, standards-compliant and deployment-ready telecom technologies.
The new optical network testbed is expected to further strengthen the country’s domestic telecom technology ecosystem by creating an infrastructure where emerging technologies can be tested, refined and validated before being taken to the ma