The government approved 5G trials for 6 months with the non-Chinese telecommunications manufacturers, published by the Department of Telecommunication, to be undertaken by Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocmm and Vodafone.
“These TSPs have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers which are Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT. In addition, Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd. will also be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology,” the statement said. The names of Chinese players Huawei and ZTE were missing from the list.
The bandwidth for trials of 5G technology is being given in the mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimeter wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz) and in 700 GHz. “Telecom service providers will also be permitted to use their existing spectrum owned by them in the 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2500 Mhz,” the statement said.
In comparison to the already-known 5G technologies, Telcos were encouraged to run trials using indigenous 5Gi technology.
The official said that certain requirements require testing cases in rural and urban areas and paying particular attention to network protection. Telcos would also be admonished to use airwaves provided for the purposes of testing and not for commercial use, a provision that, if violated, has significant repercussions. The data produced by the trials in India must also be stored by telcos.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) requested telcos last year to register a “priority supplier” set for 5G trials. In addition to testing his own technology, Jio has called Korea’s Samsung, Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson. Nokia and Ericsson were chosen by Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea. Vodafone Idea also applied for testing with Mavenir, which was based in the United States.
Mavenir is a technology supplier of OpenRAN and is conducting 4G tests in many circles in India based on that technology.