Government of India gives nod to local telecom operators for 5G trials

• Image Credit: Internet

• May 5, 2021 | moderator

New Delhi: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has permitted telecom service providers (TSPs), including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone Idea, and MTNL, to conduct 5G trials in India.

This formally leaves out Chinese companies like Huawei and ZTE from the 5G race in India.

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A statement from the Ministry of Communications said, “The applicant TSP’s includes Bharati Airtel Ltd., Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd., Vodafone Idea Ltd. and MTNL. These TSP’s have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers which Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT.”

“Each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban setting so that the benefit of 5G technology proliferates across the country and is not confined only to urban areas.” the statement added.

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In addition, Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd. will be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology.

The duration of the trials is for six months, which includes a time period of two months for the procurement and setting up of the equipments.

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The statement said, “International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has also approved the 5Gi technology, which was advocated by India as it facilitates much larger reach of the 5G towers and radio networks. The 5Gi technology has been developed by the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras (IIT-M), Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT) and IIT Hyderabad.”

 With 5G technology data, download rates are expected to be 10 times that of 4G while giving up to three times greater spectrum efficiency. The trials will be on a non-commercial basis and the data generated during the trials will be stored in India, according to the statement.

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Moreover, Director-General of Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) Lt. Gen. Dr. SP Kocchar said, “It will stimulate local Research and Development ecosystem to develop innovative applications tailored to commercial needs. It will enable TSPs to validate 5G technologies and use cases such as IoT and Industry 4.0. we hope the government will also look into the industry’s call for revisiting the 5G spectrum pricing.”