The early
'90s saw the liberalisation of the telecom sector
in India, and the growing importance of Internet
in all walks of life. It became clear that inexpensive
and widespread availability of telephones and Internet
had the potential for enabling all strata of society
to take the fruits of development.
With the
belief that solutions to the unique problems of
India could best emerge from Indian engineers, the
TeNeT Group was formed by several faculty of IIT,
Madras. Encompassing the disciplines of Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science, the Group has
focussed its attention on development of solutions
for telecom and Internet access.
The first
major effort of the Group was the development of
the corDECT Wireless in Local Loop system. This
provides high-quality telephone and Internet access
at a cost lower than conventional technologies,
in both dense urban and sparse rural.
Other major
products include:
All these products achieve
their low-cost and high performance areas (through
the use of state-of-the-art techniques in IC design,
hardware and software). These products are licensed
for manufacture to a number of companies in India
and countries around the world including Brazil,
Singapore, Tunisia and China.
In order to achieve these
successes, the TeNeT Group has developed close linkages
with industries in India and abroad. It has fostered
the formation of R&D companies by alumni of
IIT: Midas Communications, Banyan Networks, Vembu
Systems and Nilgiri Networks. These work in close
partnership with the TeNeT Group. Recently, the
TeNeT Group has participated in the formation of
n-Logue, whose mission is to provide Internet services
in rural areas using TeNeT products. Today, the
TeNeT Group and its partners have about 400 engineers
working as a closely-knit team on providing total
access solutions for telecom and Internet.
With its roots in an educational
institution, the TeNeT Group has a strong commitment
to education. Besides teaching of students in IIT,
this includes on-the-job training of large numbers
of fresh engineering graduates, and organising of
conferences and continuing education programs of
varying durations for practicing engineers and teachers
from engineering colleges. Recently, the TeNeT Group
has played a key role in the formation of the Ushamartin
Academy of Communication Technologies, whose main
focus is a finishing school for fresh telecom and
IT recruits to industry.
The TeNeT Group covers many
areas of expertise. These include design and operation
of telecommunication and computer networks; wireless
access systems; signal processing; network protocols;
DSP-based systems; design of microprocessor-based
systems; voice and video coding; network management;
local language interfaces; design of ASICs for communications,
fibre optic systems and RF design.
For more information about
the TeNeT Group, please visit the TeNeT website
by clicking
here.
