FAQs
Q. What are Telecom Centres of Excellence India?
A. Telecom Centres of Excellence (TCOEs) are a joint initiative of Government of India, major telecom operators (Telcos) and premier technical and management institutes of India in what has been termed as Public Private Partnership (PPP) mode. Seven TCOEs have been established in Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) at Chennai, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur and Mumbai, Indian Institute of Sciences, Bengaluru and Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad.
Q. What are the main objectives of the TCOEs?
A. To sustain or further accelerate the impressive growth rate of Telecom in India by capacity building, making available affordable local solutions through innovations, Research and Development, think tank activities to aid Government and Corporates in decision making and a greater role in telecom standardization activities for the benefit of the Indian industry.
Q. In what ways is Government supporting the initiative?
A. Government of India, through its Ministry of Communication and IT (MOCIT), is supporting the initiative by cash contributions and by making available the infrastructure and faculty support at IITs, IISc and IIM, which are (largely) Government funded autonomous educational institutes. MOCIT has also extended office space and infrastructure support to the TCOEs’ Coordination Centre at New Delhi through C-DOT (Centre for Development of Telematics, a Telecom Technology Development Centre of Government of India). A major share of Coordination Centre’s funding also comes from MOCIT.
Q. Which Indian telcos are associated with the TCOE initiative?
A. Seven largest telcos have joined the initiative as Principal Sponsors. The pairing is given below,
- Aircel is the the Principal sponsor of TCOE at IISc Bengaluru,
- Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd. (BSNL) is with TCOE at IIT, Kanpur
- Bharti Airtel is with TCOE at IIT Delhi,
- Idea Cellular is with TCOE at IIM Ahmedabad,
- Reliance Communications is with TCOE at IIT Madras
- Tata Teleservices is with TCOE at IIT Bombay and
- Vodafone Essar is with TCOE at IIT Kharagpur
Q. In what ways are telcos supporting the initiative?
A. For one, telcos provide a major share, 90%, of the funding to TCOEs. As co-chair of the TCOE Core Group/ Board/ Steering Committee, they are in a position to steer TCOE’s projects and working towards the areas of their immediate concerns and long term needs.
Q. What motivated telcos to be a part of the initiative?
A. The benefits to telcos are multifold,
a. The TCOEs will take up their immediate problems, technical, operational or management and come out with solutions.
b. TCOEs will help in training their manpower.
c. Telco will have a share in ownership of IPRs generated in the TCOE of which it is a member.
d. Telcos will have access to the knowledge resident and created in all the TCOEs
Q. What are the ‘focus areas’ of the TCOEs?
A. In order to cover all important areas of the telecom research, a focus area has been identified for each TCOE. Thus,
- TCOE at IIM Ahmedabad will primarily focus on Telecom Policy, Regulation, Customer care
- TCOE at IISc Bengaluru on Information security and Disaster Management of Telecom Infrastructure
- TCOE at IIT Bombay on Rural Telecom Technology
- TCOE at IIT Delhi on Telecom Technology and Management
- TCOE at IIT Kanpur on Multimedia and Telecom, Cognitive Radio and Computational Mathematics
- TCOE at IIT Kharagpur on Next Generation Networks and Technology
- TCOE at IIT Madras on Telecom Infrastructure (Active and Passive) and Energy
Q. What is the organization structure of TCOEs
A. TCOEs have a two tier structure, a central Governing Council with Secretary Telecom, Government of India as ex-officio chairman and individual Core Groups (variously known as Boards / Steering Committees at some centres).
Q. What is the legal status of TCOEs
A. TCOEs came into existence by signing of tri-partite Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) between Department of Telecom, MOCIT, Government of India, Principal sponsors and the host Institutes. Seven such MoUs were signed on 16th October 2007, 12th December 2007 and 15th February 2008 to create the TCOEs. TCOE at IIM Ahmedabad has been registered as a section 25 company and that at IIT Madras as a society under Tamil Nadu Societies Act. Other TCOEs function as departments of the host institutes. The process of registering Coordination Centre at C-DOT Campus, New Delhi as a Scientific Society is on.
Q. What are Associate Sponsors?
A. Telecom and related companies are encouraged to join Associate sponsors by signing MoU with the TCOE of their choice and making commitment to pay at least Rs 2 crores over a period of 5 years. As of now, Alphion has joined TCOE at IIT Kharagpur as Associate sponsor.
Q. What benefits can Associate sponsors expect on joining TCOEs?
A. Associate sponsors can expect multiple benefits like,
a. A non-exclusive right to use technology developed at TCOE on payment basis
b. Access to knowledge base of TCOEs
c. Participation in TCOE Core Group (also known as Board or Steering Committee) meetings
d. Access to Training facilities at TCOEs
Q. Can TCOEs take up Research projects for companies other than their Principal / Associate sponsors too?
A. Yes, in fact Contract research projects are important to TCOEs in their endeavor to become self sustaining after a period of initial funding by DoT and industry sponsors.