Jio: After the spectrum auction is completed, it is predicted that the 5G service would be available in India by the end of next year. The CEO of Ookla, Doug Suttles, stated that Jio’s approach for 5G in India is tough because it has never been attempted before.
Jio will choose the Open RAN path for 5G deployment in India and would construct its own infrastructure to support it. According to Suttles, it will prove to be a benefit in the long run. He also pointed out that Jio’s plan, which would be implemented through software, may result in the business spending less money.
“We do see the entire wireless industry moving in that direction in the future, so this is just them attempting to push the cutting-edge technology early in order to manage the network through software and the cloud, hopefully with complete automation.”
“It should become significantly less expensive over time, but bringing anything like that to market would be difficult,” Suttes told The Financial Express in an interview.
The magazine said that Suttes stated that 5G will provide hundreds of Megabits or perhaps Gigabits of data with minimal latency. He went on to say that the low latency aspect is essential for Ookla, the company behind Speed Test since it would want to see pings that are less than 10 milliseconds, which is not yet the case even in the United States.
Last year, Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, stated that the company’s Jio business has created its own 5G technology, which allows for a speedier mobile connection. As Ambani has previously stated, “Once Jio’s 5G solution has been proved at the national scale, Jio Platforms will be well-positioned to become an exporter of 5G solutions to other telecom operators across the world, as a fully managed service.”
Jio had previously said that the technology achieved a 1Gbps speed during its preliminary tests. Also in development are proprietary MIMO (Multiple Input Multiple Output) technologies and 5G small-scale equipment, which will improve the speed and range of coverage of Jio’s networks.
It is also pursuing IoT (Internet of Things) smart home solutions, as well as services in the retail, health, and education sectors through its digital subsidiary, Reliance Digital.
It was earlier this year that the Indian telecom operators notified the Department of Telecommunications that the country’s fifth-generation (5Gi) standard did not have a device ecosystem and that it should be treated as optional and non-mandatory for the industry.
They pointed out that making the standard obligatory would drive up the cost of cellphones by as much as 20 percent. According to a previous report by ET, a Jio official requested the department to refrain from prescribing any criteria for consumer devices in terms of spectrum characteristics.
Meanwhile, Airtel and Ericsson demonstrated India’s first 5G network in a rural region as part of a collaboration with Nokia. It took place at Bhaipur Bramanan hamlet on the outskirts of Delhi/NCR, and it made use of a 5G trial spectrum that had been assigned to Airtel by the Department of Technology (DoT).
The spectrum auctions are expected to take place in the next months, and according to Airtel CTO Randeep Sekhon, the 5G networks would be operational within two-thirds of a year following the auction.
