DoT Allows Reliance Jio And Airtel To Conduct 5G Trials In India

The DoT has finally approved 5G trials in India. The telecom operators will be given 700 MHz to conduct the trials in the country. The Government has allowed 13 companies, including Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone-Idea, and BSNL for the testing.

However, the Department of Telecommunication said that the telecom operators should take care of the security of the network while conducting trials in rural and urban areas. In addition, the ministry is likely to ask all telecom operators to use the 700 MHz bands for trials and not for commercial deployment.

"BSNL has tied up with Centre for Development of Telematics and Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, and Reliance Jio have tied up with other vendors including Ericsson and Nokia for trials in different regions across the country," an official was quoted by ET. He said, "Telcos will soon be given airwaves in the 700 Mhz band to use for trial purposes with some conditions attached."

The Department of Telecommunication also asked all telecom players to submit the list of all vendors they are partnering with for the 5G trials. Notably, the Reliance Jio joined hands with Samsung, Nokia, and Ericsson for the trials. Airtel and Vodafone-Idea partnered with Nokia, Ericsson, and US-based Mavenir to conduct the trials in India.

Chinese Vendors Are Not Allowed In 5G Trials

The report said that DoT has not allowed Huawei and ZTE to conduct trials with the telecom operators. This means Huawei and ZTE will not be part of the 5G trials and no telecom operator is allowed to join hands with these players. Apart from that, Reliance Jio is planning to work on Massive-MIMO and 5G Small Cell equipment for the deployment. Besides, Jio wants to develop its 5G network on its own to push Atmanirbhar Bharat. On the other hand, Airtel announced the testing of the 5G network in Hyderabad.

When 5G Will Be Available In India

It is worth noting that smartphone companies have already started launching 5G smartphones under Rs. 20,000 and users are using them on the 4G network as the 5G network is yet to come. It seems that telecom operators might soon launch or upgrade their 4G network to offer 5G services in the country. But, one should not forget that the 700 MHz band, which is suitable for 5G services is really expensive so, we have to wait for some time to see how things will turn out in favour of telecom operators.