On May 4, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) approved the Telecom service Providers (TSP’s) to start conducting 5G trials for a period of 6 months. Bharti Airtel, MTNL, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea are the Telecom Service Providers (TSP’s) who have applied for the same. They have been told to refrain themselves from using any sort of Chinese Technology.
They can use indigenously developed technologies which have been approved for trials like that of Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, C-DOT and Reliance Jio’s. This means that Chinese gear makers will be out of this equation.
As per an official statement, The six-month trial period includes a two-month period for procurement of the equipment and setting it up.
The Department of Telecommunications said in a statement, “The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) approved today permissions to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) for conducting trials for use and applications of 5G technology. The applicant TSPs include Bharti Airtel Ltd, Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd, Vodafone Idea Ltd and MTNL”.
“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,” DoT further added.
The statement said, “The duration of the trials, at present, is for a period of 6 months. This includes a time period of 2 months for procurement and setting up of the equipment”.
The permission letters to each TSP specifically highlights that each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings along with urban areas so that the benefit of the 5G technology can be accessed everywhere in the country and is not only restricted to urban settings only.
Earlier Vodafone and Bharti Airtel had submitted their application to carry out trials using the 5G technology of China’s Huawei. Later, they resubmitted their proposals wherein the trails will be now done without Chinese technologies.
According to Indian Government’s expectations, 5G technology will deliver improved user experience in terms of data rates, data download (10x of 4G) wherein one can get up to three times greater spectrum efficiency and ultra-low latency in order to enable Industry 4.0 or Internet of Things (IoT).