Telecom providers allowed to have 5G trial

New Delhi: The government on Tuesday allowed telecom service providers to conduct trials for use and applications of 5G Technology.

Bharti Airtel, Reliance JioInfocomm, Vodafone Idea and MTNL have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers such as Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT.

Reliance JioInfocomm also has said it will be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology.

The objectives of conducting 5G trials include testing 5G spectrum propagation characteristics especially in the Indian context; model tuning and evaluation of chosen equipment and vendors; testing of indigenous technology; testing of applications (such as tele-medicine, tele-education, augmented/ virtual reality, drone-based agricultural monitoring, etc.); and to test 5G phones and devices, said the communications ministry.

The Department of Telecom gave the permission as per the priorities and technology partners identified by companies themselves. 

The experimental spectrum is being given in various bands which include the mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimeter wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz) and in Sub-Gigahertz band (700 GHz).  TSPs will also be permitted to use their existing spectrum owned by them (800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2500 MHz) for conduct of 5G trials.

The duration of the trials 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 specify that each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G Technology proliferates across the country and is not confined only to urban areas.

5G technology is expected to deliver improved user experience in terms of data download rates (expected to be 10 times that of 4G), up to three times greater spectrum efficiency, and ultra low latency to enable Industry 4.0. Applications are across a wide range of sectors such as agriculture, education, health, transport, traffic management smart cities, smart homes, and multiple applications of Internet of Things.

DoT has specified that the trials will be isolated and not connected with the existing networks of TSPs.

Also, trials will be on non-commercial basis and the data generated during the trials shall be stored in India. (UNI)