Chinese smartphone and telecom gear maker, Huawei, was in a tough spot a month ago as a report revealed the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is barring the company from testing 5G in India. However, Huawei can now be relieved as it received an official invitation from the DoT for conducting 5G trials in the sub-continent. Huawei will now be part of other companies who will be conducting the tests for 5G in India. "We have received official invitation from the Department of Telecom (DoT) on September 27. We have submitted our proposal and now waiting for reply from the department," Huawei India CEO Jay Chen told PTI.
DoT Already Approached Nokia, Samsung, Cisco for 5G Development
DoT has already approached Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Cisco and NEC for development of 5G applications and running trials on the suggestion of Stanford University Professor Emeritus Arogyaswami J Paulraj. Paulraj is a member of the 5G panel that recently suggested spectrum roadmap for the technology.
"We have been informed that DoT has set up a committee to decide on zones for trials. The government intends to allocate 100 megahertz spectrum for 5G trials. Huawei has shown interest in running a trial in Delhi and one more city. We also want to engage with state governments," Chen said.
Huawei Already Conducted 5G Trials in India With Bharti Airtel
Early this year, Huawei conducted 5G trials in the laboratory with Bharti Airtel in India where it achieved a broadband speed of more than 3 Gbps in 3.5 GHz spectrum band. Chen said Huawei is focussing on fixed wireless access, enhanced mobile broadband, WTTX, which is delivering fibre quality broadband in wireless mode, and ultra high definition video transfer.
"We are investing in India with long-term vision. I see India to be the most dynamic country in terms of overall economic growth in the next five years when the Indian telecom sector will be full of hope and opportunities as things are moving in the right direction. 5G is going to transform everything," Chen said.
Commercial Rollout of 5G Expected to Take Place in 2020
The commercial rollout of 5G is expected to take place in India in 2020. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has recommended an auction of about 8,644 MHz of telecom frequencies at an estimated base price of Rs 4.9 lakh crore. The government expects to conduct the auction to provide spectrum for 5G services in second half of 2019.
However, the DoT has started to develop an ecosystem around 5G services so that telcos are able to get many applications that they can monetise from the time they start rolling out 5G networks in the country.
