The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) announced on Tuesday that mobile operators will perform 5G trials in the country with equipment manufacturers they’ve partnered with, with the exception of Chinese firms.
According to an official statement, the Central government has permitted telecom companies such as Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone Idea, and MTNL to conduct trials for the use and applications of 5G technology.
Original equipment manufacturers and technology companies such as Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and the C-DoT have partnered with these service providers.
Reliance Jio Infocomm will also be conducting trials of its own technology. Permissions are granted based on the goals and names of technology partners that the companies have appointed.
“Nokia India applauds the government’s decision to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban areas, which is in line with the government’s long-term vision of a Digital India. We are confident in our ability to assist our customers in implementing their 5G strategies, thanks to our technological leadership, global experience serving customers, and initiatives in India, such as 5G manufacturing”
The mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimetre wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz), and sub-gigahertz band are among the experimental spectrum bands (700 GHz).
“It will encourage the creation of creative applications tailored to commercial needs in the local R&D ecosystem. TSPs (telecom service providers) will be able to test 5G applications and use cases like IoT and Industry 4.0. S P Kochhar, director general of the Cellular Operators’ Association of India, said, “We hope the government will also look into the industry’s demand for revisiting 5G spectrum pricing.”
Operators will also be able to perform 5G trials using their current spectrum (800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, and 2500 MHz).
The trials are currently scheduled to last six months. This includes the two months needed for equipment acquisition and setup.
In addition to urban areas, the government has directed telecom service providers to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban areas.
Testing 5G spectrum propagation characteristics, particularly in the Indian context; model tuning and evaluating chosen equipment and vendors; and testing indigenous technology, applications (such as telemedicine, teleeducation, augmented/virtual reality, and drone-based agricultural monitoring), and 5G phones and devices are among the goals of the 5G trials.
To support Industry 4.0, 5G technology is expected to provide a better user experience in terms of data download speeds (expected to be 10 times faster than 4G), up to three times greater spectrum availability, and low latency.
Agriculture, education, health, transportation, traffic management, smart cities, smart houses, and various Internet of Things applications are all examples of applications. The Department of Transportation has stated that the trials will be independent and will not be linked to existing telecom networks. The trials will not be for profit, and the information gathered will be held in India.
