The government has decided to provide financial assistance to a Bengaluru-based firm for extension of 4G and 5G services in rural areas through its 'GigaMesh' solution.

Technology Development Board, a statutory body of Central government's Department of Science and Technology, has agreed to support Astrome Technologies Private Limited for "Productization and Commercialization" of ‘GigaMesh Solution for delivery of 4G/5G Telecom and Internet services for Defence and Rural Sectors’, the Science and Technology Ministry said in a release on Saturday (23 July).

The board, according to the ministry, has been instrumental in development of a conducive start up ecosystem by promoting innovation and entrepreneurship in India.

"To solve Internet Woes of Rural India, TDB has agreed to provide financial assistance of Rs 2.97 crore, out of the total project cost of Rs 19.79 crore to Astrome Technologies," the ministry said.

The idea behind development of GigaMesh is that, fibre-like capacity is needed at every telecom site but deploying the same at each site is not feasible, due to cost and access related constraints.

As 5G deployment happens, the number of cell sites will increase and each cell site will require multi-Gbps throughputs, the ministry said.

Therefore, telecom deployment in suburban and rural areas will require wireless products that can deliver both capacity and range.

To cater to this, Astrome has come up with "GigaMesh i.e. ‘First E-band radio that features Multiple-Point-to-Point (Multi-P2P) communication offering lower CapEx cost and OpEx cost", the ministry said.

In addition, the device can provide up to 40 links with 2+ Gbps capacity each, communicating up to a range of 10 kilometers. This flexibility in range makes it suitable for both decongesting the dense urban networks as well as extending rural coverage, the device is also capable of making the existing infrastructure 5G ready, it added.

According to the ministry, this revolutionary approach to high-speed multiple point-to-point (Multi-P2P) communication yields up to six times reduction in capital expenditure (CapEx) per link as compared to the state-of-the-art point-to-point (P2P) wireless solutions.