Indian state-owned telecom soft launches of Quantum 5G FWA

India's state-owned telecom operator Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) announced the soft launch of Quantum 5G FWA, the country's first indigenous, SIM-less fixed-wireless-access solution that is claimed to deliver fibre-like speeds over 5G radio.

The service was inaugurated at BSNL's exchange in the southern city of Hyderabad by BSNL Director A. Robert J. Ravi. "It is the first SIM-less, 100% home-grown customized 5G FWA for BSNL," Ravi said.

With Quantum 5G FWA, BSNL becomes the first Indian telecom operator to offer indigenous 5G radio and SIM-less authentication and first to showcase a production-grade SIM-less 5G service.

The main features of Quantum 5G FWA are:  SIM-less architecture: built on BSNL's Direct-to-Device platform so the customer's CPE auto-authenticates—no physical SIM required; fully indigenous stack: core, RAN, and CPE designed and integrated by Indian vendors; Gigabit-class speeds: Ameerpet recorded 980 Mbps DL / 140 Mbps UL with sub-10 ms latency—ideal for UHD streaming, cloud gaming and remote work; Rapid install: self-install gateway reaches 85 % of Hyderabad households under existing BSNL tower grid; no trenching or fibre pull required.

As per the tariff reveal, introductory plans are INR 999 for 100 Mbps and INR 1499 for 300 Mbps. The facility will be expanded on a pilot basis in other Indian cities Bengaluru, Pondicherry, Visakhapatnam, Pune, Gwalior and Chandigarh by September this year.