5G Radio Access Network (RAN) Equipment Manufacturing Facility

Project Overview

A consortium led by an Indian telecom equipment original equipment manufacturer (OEM) and a Japanese-European RF technology partner engaged IMARC Engineering to establish a greenfield 5G Radio Access Network (RAN) equipment manufacturing facility at Electronics City Phase 2 in Bengaluru, Karnataka. The project was structured against the convergence of three policy frameworks: the PLI scheme for Telecom and Networking Products, with an INR 12,195 Crore corpus under which 42 manufacturers were approved across the 2021 application round; the Bharat 6G Vision Document released by the Department of Telecommunications in March 2023 with the parallel Bharat 6G Mission outlay; and the Trusted Source framework introduced under the National Security Directive on the Telecommunication Sector (DoT, 2021), which restricts non-trusted equipment from Indian telecom infrastructure and creates structural demand for indigenous and allied-country-sourced telecom hardware.

Driven by India's strategic transition from telecom equipment import dependence, concentrated historically with European (Ericsson, Nokia) and Asian (Samsung, Huawei) suppliers, and the rapid pace of 5G rollout in India (approximately 460,000 5G sites were deployed within 18 months of commercial launch in October 2022, among the fastest 5G build-outs globally per DoT public data), the client identified a strategic opportunity to establish a domestic 5G RAN equipment manufacturing capability with O-RAN (Open Radio Access Network) Alliance-compliant architecture, positioning for both the ongoing 4G/5G upgrade pipeline (notably the BSNL/MTNL network modernisation programme) and the longer-horizon 6G technology transition under the Bharat 6G Mission.

The project involved establishing 12,000 macro 5G gNodeB systems and 4,000 small cell systems per annum (16,000 total cell sites), with the macro systems covering integrated Radio Units (RUs) operating in the Sub-6 GHz n41 (2.5 GHz) and n78 (3.5 GHz) bands paired with Distributed Unit (DU) and Centralized Unit (CU) baseband processing, and small cell systems addressing in-building and dense urban deployment requirements. Site infrastructure was designed for Phase 2 expansion adding a dedicated 6G research-and-development line and mmWave Radio Unit manufacturing.

Client's Challenges

The client faced several specific challenges in establishing greenfield 5G RAN equipment manufacturing in India:

• RF and digital electronics manufacturing precision: Engineering precision Surface Mount Technology (SMT) assembly of complex RF and digital boards with components down to 0201 (0.6mm × 0.3mm) passive packages and 0.4mm-pitch BGA active components, with associated Automated Optical Inspection (AOI), X-ray inspection for hidden BGA solder joint verification, and in-circuit and functional test (ICT/FCT) systems.
• RF performance validation infrastructure: Establishing RF testing capability across gNB output power, EVM (Error Vector Magnitude), ACLR (Adjacent Channel Leakage Ratio), spurious emissions, and beam-forming pattern characterisation — with associated shielded anechoic chambers (both Compact Antenna Test Range and far-field configurations), vector network analysers, signal generators, and spectrum analysers covering the deployed Sub-6 GHz frequency bands and the future mmWave product roadmap.
• O-RAN architecture compliance: Building products to O-RAN Alliance specifications (notably O-RAN.WG1 architecture, WG4 Open Fronthaul, and others) while maintaining 3GPP Release 17 and Release 18 conformance and ITU-R IMT-2020 compliance — a tighter combined requirement set than conventional proprietary RAN.
• TEC, BIS, and Trusted Source certification: Securing Telecommunication Engineering Centre (TEC) Mandatory Testing & Certification of Telecom Equipment (MTCTE) certification across product variants, BIS Type Approvals, Indian Common Criteria certification for security-sensitive components, and Trusted Source certification under the DoT framework — without which the products cannot be deployed in Indian licensed telecom networks.
• PLI DVA at challenging composition: Achieving PLI Telecom Domestic Value Addition milestones in a product category where RF transceivers, FPGAs, baseband processors, and power amplifiers — typically representing 35 to 45 percent of bill-of-material cost — remain substantially imported from US and European chip suppliers, requiring deliberate localisation of mechanical casings, cooling assemblies, power supplies, antennas, cabling, and final assembly to reach DVA milestones.
• Workforce build-up for RF and telecom hardware operations: Recruiting 680 personnel including 84 RF engineers, 76 digital hardware designers, 48 test and validation engineers, and 22 telecom standards and certification specialists in Bengaluru's competitive electronics talent market where chip design houses, global captive R&D centres, and established Indian telecom equipment makers compete for the same talent pool.

What We Did

• Pre-Investment and Strategic Advisory

Our feasibility study evaluated five candidate Indian locations, Bengaluru Electronics City Phase 2 (Karnataka), Sriperumbudur (Tamil Nadu), Noida and Greater Noida (Uttar Pradesh), Hyderabad (Telangana), and Pune-Chakan corridor (Maharashtra), against 16 weighted criteria including telecom equipment ecosystem maturity, proximity to chip design and RF engineering talent pools, port and air-cargo connectivity for time-sensitive imported component flows, state electronics manufacturing incentive depth, dedicated 220 kV grid availability with documented reliability, and academic and research linkages relevant to advanced telecom hardware development.

Bengaluru Electronics City Phase 2 was selected on the strength of Bengaluru's established telecom equipment ecosystem (with Indian telecom equipment makers, global vendor R&D centres, and chip design houses operating in the city), proximity to Bengaluru Kempegowda International Airport for time-sensitive component imports, the Karnataka Electronics, IT, BT and Startup Policy 2017 capital subsidy structure, and Electronics City's dedicated electronics manufacturing zoning.

CapEx planning of INR 1,240 Crore covered the SMT and PCB assembly hall, the RF assembly and tuning area, the final assembly and integration block, the RF and environmental test laboratory complex including shielded anechoic chambers, the burn-in chambers, the warehouse and packaging area, and the dedicated 220 kV substation upgrade plus solar generation.

Our team led the PLI Telecom & Networking Products bid preparation that secured the project's scheme allocation, alongside Karnataka Industries Department investment approval, Electronics City Industrial Township Authority plot allotment, and DoT pre-engagement on the Trusted Source certification pathway. Financial modelling demonstrated post-tax IRR of 21.8 percent at full ramp with a 4.8-year payback inclusive of PLI accruals. Cumulative PLI eligibility was modelled at approximately INR 86 Crore across the five-year scheme tenure against incremental sales milestones.

• Engineering and Design Services

IMARC designed a 28,000 sq.m built-up facility on a 12-acre plot comprising the SMT and PCB assembly hall (8,400 sq.m housing six high-speed SMT lines, in-line automated optical inspection, X-ray inspection for BGA verification, and ICT/FCT test stations), the RF assembly and tuning area (5,200 sq.m covering RF module assembly, power amplifier tuning, antenna sub-assembly integration, and integrated test), the final assembly and integration block (4,800 sq.m for gNB system assembly, mechanical and environmental sealing, and labelling), the RF test laboratory (3,200 sq.m housing CATR and far-field anechoic chambers across the deployed frequency bands and the future mmWave roadmap), the environmental and reliability test laboratory (1,800 sq.m covering thermal cycling, humidity, vibration, and IP rating verification), and burn-in chambers for accelerated reliability validation prior to despatch.

Process utility design covered 8 MW grid demand from the upgraded 220 kV substation supplemented by 1.6 MW captive rooftop solar, ESD (Electrostatic Discharge) controlled environment throughout the SMT and RF assembly zones to international electronics manufacturing standards, controlled humidity HVAC at 45 to 55 percent relative humidity in critical-component handling zones, dedicated dry-air supply for component storage with documented moisture protection per IPC/JEDEC J-STD-033 standards, and a dedicated component traceability and serial-number tracking infrastructure feeding into the integrated MES backbone. The shielded anechoic chamber rooms were specified for measurement accuracy compliant with TEC MTCTE testing protocols across the deployed RF bands.

• Procurement and Supply Chain Support

We executed a multi-geography procurement programme across 64 critical vendors. SMT assembly equipment including pick-and-place, reflow ovens, AOI, and X-ray inspection was sourced from established Japanese and German specialists with documented installations at global telecom equipment manufacturers. RF test instrumentation including vector network analysers, signal generators, and spectrum analysers was sourced from US, Japanese, and German specialist instrumentation OEMs covering the deployed 5G frequency bands and future mmWave roadmap. Shielded anechoic chamber and CATR systems were sourced from established European and Indian RF chamber specialists with documented telecom equipment industry references. Burn-in equipment and environmental test chambers were sourced from European and Asian OEMs.

Component sourcing was deliberately structured to optimise PLI Telecom Domestic Value Addition within the constraints of a sector where core RF and baseband silicon remains overwhelmingly imported. RF transceivers, FPGAs, baseband processors, and high-power amplifier devices were sourced under structured long-term agreements with established US and European chip suppliers.

Localisation focus was on the bill-of-material categories where Indian capability exists at the required quality and reliability levels: mechanical casings and cooling assemblies from Indian fabrication and machining specialists, power supplies and DC-DC converters from established Indian power electronics manufacturers, antennas and cabling assemblies from Indian RF component suppliers, PCB substrates from qualified Indian PCB fabricators for selected layer-count grades, and final integration, testing, and assembly from the in-house operation itself.

Vendor qualification protocols included on-site supplier audits, factory acceptance testing, site acceptance validation, and full incoming component traceability supporting both customer warranty obligations and Trusted Source certification audit requirements. PLI DVA reached 32 percent in Year-1 operations and 38 percent in Year-2 as the Indian supplier ramp progressed across mechanical, power, and antenna categories.

• Project Execution and Site Management

Our turnkey project management delivered 22 months from groundbreaking to first commercial gNB despatch, coordinating civil construction, mechanical and electrical erection, ESD-controlled environment fit-out, equipment integration, and phased commissioning of the SMT, RF assembly, final integration, and test zones. We managed construction of the SMT and PCB assembly hall, the RF assembly and tuning block, the final assembly and integration area, the RF and environmental test laboratory complex (with shielded chamber rooms engineered for the strict RF isolation and EMI control required for accurate gNB performance measurement), the warehouse and outbound logistics block, and the central utility yard.

Phased commissioning ran the SMT lines first with progressive line-by-line qualification across the six SMT lines, followed by RF assembly commissioning sequenced to receive the first qualified SMT-assembled boards, then final assembly and integration commissioning, and finally end-to-end gNB system qualification with the shielded RF test chambers as the final qualification gate. Installation supervision ensured telecom-equipment-grade specifications: SMT line solder paste deposition repeatability within ±15 micrometres, pick-and-place placement accuracy within ±25 micrometres for the smallest passive packages, reflow oven thermal profile uniformity within ±3°C across the conveyor, ESD compliance audited by independent third-party inspection across all production zones, and shielded chamber RF leakage verified to better than -100 dB isolation. Multi-vendor coordination across Japanese, German, US, European, and Indian contractors required an 18-strong owner's engineering team supplemented by 8 Japanese-European resident engineers from the RF technology partner during the RF assembly and test commissioning phases.

• Compliance, Quality and Sustainability

IMARC led certification readiness across TEC MTCTE (Mandatory Testing & Certification of Telecom Equipment, administered by the Telecommunication Engineering Centre under the Department of Telecommunications) — secured across the macro gNB and small cell product variants in Year-1 of commercial operations — BIS Type Approvals across product models, Indian Common Criteria certification for security-sensitive components per the Standardization Testing and Quality Certification Directorate, Trusted Source certification under the DoT National Security Directive on the Telecommunication Sector, 3GPP Release 17 and Release 18 conformance verified through accredited third-party test laboratories, O-RAN Alliance specification compliance verified across O-RAN.WG1 and WG4 protocols, ITU-R IMT-2020 conformance, and ISO 9001:2015, ISO 14001:2015, and ISO 45001:2018 management systems. The product portfolio was assessed and listed as Trusted Source-eligible by the National Security Committee on Telecom's office within Year-1 of commercial operations, enabling deployment in Indian licensed telecom infrastructure.

Environmental compliance covered Karnataka State Pollution Control Board Consent to Establish and Operate, Hazardous Waste Authorisation for solder dross, spent flux, and end-of-life electronic component management (managed through licensed e-waste handlers under the E-Waste (Management) Rules 2022), and Extended Producer Responsibility commitments for end-of-life telecom equipment take-back across the supplied customer base.

The facility achieved IGBC Gold certification through 1.6 MW captive rooftop solar (covering approximately 14 percent of facility daytime energy demand), heat recovery from the burn-in chambers and SMT reflow ovens delivering 3.6 GJ per hour of useful thermal energy, water reclamation at 72 percent of process intake through closed-loop cooling and ESD-zone humidity control recovery, variable-frequency drives across HVAC and process air systems, and 16 percent lower facility energy intensity versus the European telecom equipment manufacturing industry benchmark per third-party comparative assessment.

Final Results

Operational Performance

The facility achieved mechanical completion in 22 months with first commercial 5G gNB despatch in month 23. Full 16,000 cell-site per annum nameplate capacity was reached at 78 percent utilisation by month 18 of operations, with sustained first-pass yield of 97.2 percent at gNB system level and 98.4 percent at PCB sub-assembly level. TEC MTCTE certification was secured across the macro gNB and small cell product variants in Year-1 with subsequent Trusted Source certification under the DoT framework, O-RAN Alliance specification conformance verified across O-RAN protocols, and 3GPP Release 17 and Release 18 conformance testing completed through accredited test laboratories. Cumulative quality performance across the first operational year recorded zero security-incident escalations, zero field-returns attributable to RF performance non-conformance, and full serial-number traceability across all commercial deployments.

Financial Outcomes

Final CapEx of INR 1,180 Crore delivered 4.8 percent savings against the INR 1,240 Crore budget through optimised civil packaging, deliberate Indian-fabrication leverage for the mechanical and clean-utility scope, the dedicated 220 kV substation cost-sharing benefit with the Electronics City Industrial Township Authority, and disciplined multi-vendor procurement across the chip and instrumentation supply base. PLI Telecom & Networking Products disbursements commenced from Year-1 commercial production against the scheme's incremental sales milestone structure, with cumulative scheme benefit of approximately INR 86 Crore across the five-year window. Year-2 revenue of INR 1,590 Crore was generated at an EBITDA margin of 19 percent — consistent with Indian telecom equipment manufacturer reporting and supported by the Trusted Source-protected domestic procurement framework and the value-added 5G RAN product mix relative to commoditised passive infrastructure.

Market Access

Long-term supply contracts were signed with two Indian telecom operators covering the BSNL and MTNL network modernisation programme and private 5G network deployments for industrial, healthcare, and defence campus applications. The Trusted Source-certified product portfolio enabled participation in Indian licensed telecom equipment tenders previously dominated by European incumbents.

Selective export entries were established into Southeast Asian and African markets where Indian telecom equipment is structurally competitive — covering tenders in select countries across both regions — with export share reaching 22 percent of revenue by Year-2. Active discussions were underway with three additional Indian private telecom operators and two Middle East tier-2 telecom buyers for the Phase 2 product roadmap.

Sustainability Impact

Our integrated design — combining 1.6 MW captive rooftop solar covering approximately 14 percent of facility daytime energy demand, heat recovery from the burn-in chambers and SMT reflow ovens delivering 3.6 GJ per hour of useful thermal energy, variable-frequency drives across HVAC and process air systems, controlled-humidity HVAC engineered for cleanroom-grade air quality at minimum energy intensity, and LED lighting throughout — achieves 16 percent lower facility energy intensity versus the European telecom equipment manufacturing industry benchmark, saving approximately INR 14 Crore annually in energy operating costs.

Process water reclamation reaches 72 percent through closed-loop cooling and ESD-zone humidity control recovery. The facility holds IGBC Gold certification and operates a structured end-of-life telecom equipment take-back partnership with the supplied customer base under the E-Waste (Management) Rules 2016 Extended Producer Responsibility framework.

Strategic Impact

The project established a significant integrated 5G RAN equipment manufacturing capability under the PLI Telecom & Networking Products framework with full Trusted Source certification, a capability historically confined to European, Korean, and (pre-2020) Chinese incumbent manufacturers. Year-2 revenue of INR 1,590 Crore, 19 percent EBITDA margin, sustained 97.2 percent first-pass yield, O-RAN Alliance specification compliance, and the secured Trusted Source certification led the client to approve Phase 2 expansion comprising a dedicated 6G research-and-development line aligned with the Bharat 6G Mission roadmap and mmWave Radio Unit manufacturing for the higher-frequency 5G NR bands.

IMARC Engineering's end-to-end EPCM advisory, combining RF and digital electronics manufacturing engineering, O-RAN architecture-compliant facility design, PLI Telecom scheme navigation, multi-OEM equipment and chip procurement coordination, and integrated TEC/BIS/Trusted Source certification readiness — enabled the client to anchor a strategically important Indian industrial asset in a sector where technology complexity, certification rigour, and the Trusted Source framework had previously confined Indian-flag participation to system integration and channel partnership rather than indigenous equipment manufacturing.