Coriant announced its agreement with Government-owned telecom operator BSNL to chart path to 5G and IoT in India.

Coriant will assist BSNL for laying foundation for innovation in network architectures and services leveraging 5G, IoT, SDN/NFV, and mobile edge computing technologies.

Earlier, Finland-based telecom equipment maker Nokia announced an agreement with BSNL to explore 5G opportunities. Nokia has a similar 5G agreement with Bharti Airtel as well. Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE do not have any publicly announced 5G engagements in India.

Coriant, a supplier of packet optical, IP, and SDN solutions, will collaborate with BSNL for exploring 5G and related technologies in India.

“5G represents an enormous leap forward in capacity and throughput speeds, and we are pleased to team with our technology partner Coriant to tap into these capabilities and explore use cases for next-generation services and applications,” said Anupam Shrivastava, chairman and managing director of BSNL.

BSNL is yet to derive strong revenue from its 4G investment in India. Reliance Jio is the leading 4G operator in India.

BSNL and Coriant will work together to develop 5G and IoT use cases such as rural connectivity, connected healthcare, industrial automation, public safety, video surveillance, energy, and agriculture.

“BSNL’s vision aligns with our strategy of driving innovation in 5G solutions and architectures,” said Shaygan Kheradpir, CEO and chairman of Coriant.