Established in 2006, Saankhya has invested $40 million till date in technologies that have helped expand its 5G capabilities
Wireless technology and chip solutions provider Saankhya Labs is relying on its in-house semiconductor solutions to grab the top spot in the 5G network space.
In a conversation with Hindu BusinessLine, Saankhya Labs co-founder and CEO Parag Naik said that he believes that the company’s indigenously produced chipset and end-to-end silicon systems could give it an edge over other players who have ventured into the growing 5G space through O-RAN solutions.
“A large number of O-RAN players are dependent on external silicon,” Naik said, adding that “the disadvantage here is these companies will not have control and will be at the mercy of other players for price and wait times. Designing our own chipsets can allow us to incorporate design capabilities to reduce power, save costs, etc that other players can’t do”
Established in 2006, Saankhya has invested $40 million till date in technologies that have helped expand it’s 5G capabilities. Saankhya Labs’ Software Defined Radio (SDR) System on Chips (SoC) powers all its products and solutions. For 5G network solutions, this includes ORAN-based 5G Radio Units and open DU solutions for Open-RAN networks.
With more players foraying into the 5G technology market, Naik believes that the next four to five years will be the key differentiator, where “we will know which Indian companies have the engineering prowess, product differentiation capabilities and operation abilities to stand out and survive”.
Naik agreed that a major threat of Indian players in the 5G space are likely to be international companies that have better supply chain management capabilities to command a better market presence. However, he believes that Indian design capabilities could be a saving grace for Indian vendors to enter the 5G solutions space.
