Researchers at the University of Southampton have been awarded a contract to design telecommunications networks across India and China.

Professor Lajos Hanzo, Chair of Telecommunications at the University's School of Electronics and Computer Science (ECS), and his team are working in a consortium with nine UK institutions and seven Indian Institutes of Technology to design the next generation of wireless systems across India.

"India has a huge rural population and our aim is to provide telecommunications for remote villages," says Professor Hanzo.

"This is very challenging and there are theoretical and practical constraints but a huge need for this to support next generation healthcare and other services in India".

The five-year (two phase) initiative is in its first phase and is funded collaboratively between the Research Councils UK Digital Economy Programme, the Indian Government's Department of Science and Technology and the information and communications industry to the tune of over 10 million pounds, a university release said.

The project is referred to as the India-UK Advanced Technology Centre of Excellence in Next Generation Networks Systems and Services and being led overall by Professor Gerard Parr from the University of Ulster in Northern Ireland and Professor Ashok Jhunjhunwala at the Indian Institute of Technology in Madras.

A second project, called UK-China Science Bridges: Research and Development on (B)4G Wireless Mobile Communications (UC4G), has the ultimate goal of creating a UK-China joint research and development centre for future wireless communication networks.

It is funded by the Research Councils UK to help collaboration between British and Chinese academic institutions.

Professor Hanzo and his team are working with academic and industrial partners to develop next-generation global wireless telecommunications systems.

In this three-year China-UK project, a test bed will be created for the research and development of cutting-edge mobile communication systems.

In the UK consortium, there are six academic partners led by Dr Cheng-Xiang Wang of Heriot-Watt University, four associate academic members, and Mobile VCE (representing its 15 industrial members).

The Chinese consortium consists of seven academic partners and six industrial partners, led by the Shanghai Research Centre for Wireless Communications.

Professor Hanzo said, "China and India together form a market of two billion people. The provision of effective telecommunications in these markets will have a powerful influence on industry".