When Mukesh Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries (RIL), who also led the telecom arm Reliance Jio, announced its ambitious Jio 5G plan during the 43rd Annual General Meet (AGM), he wants to make it happen soon. The telco has approached the Department of Telecommunication (DoT) seeking 5G spectrums. The telco approached, DoT directly as there seems to be little or no activity for a 5G spectrum auction by the Telecom Regulatory Authority Of India (TRAI).
According to the Business Standard report, Reliance Jio is seeking 5G spectrums to test its indigenously developed 5G network. The telco has applied for 800 megahertz (MHz) spectrum each in both the millimetre – 26 gigahertz (GHz), and 24 GHz wave mmWave bands as well as 100 MHz in the 3.5 GHz band. These are for field trials for its Made in India 5G technology, and the trails would happen in few metro cities across India.
Once the trails are successful, Jio can prepare itself to deploy the same across all telecom circles in India. These would also pop up India to an exclusive group of countries with their own 5G networking technology. Currently, a handful of Chinese (Huawei, ZTE), European (Ericsson, Nokia) and Asian (Samsung) countries have this capability.
As per Jio’s plan, once the 5G network rolled out in India, it can show the world the value and efficiency of its indigenously developed 5G network. Thus it could take on global telecom network giants mainly Huawei, ZTE, Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung. While the anti-China sentiments are getting stronger making life difficult for Chinese telecom gear makers Huawei and ZTE, Jio can pull off an aggressive stand for 5G network infrastructure in any country with cut-throat pricing and a mega list of backers.
During the 43rd AGM, Mr Amabani announced that Jio has created a complete 5G solution from scratch. It will enable Jio to launch a world-class 5G service in India using 100 per cent homegrown technologies and solutions. Most of the Jio’s 4G and 5G technologies are powered by several core software technologies and components that have been developed right here in India by young Jio software engineers.
Once Jio 5G solution is implemented in India and proven its efficiency, it will be made available to other telcos worldwide, as a complete managed service.