TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G Technology proliferates across the country and is not confined to urban areas alone
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on May 4 gave permission to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to conduct trials for use and applications of 5G technology for a period of six months.
TSPs that have applied for permission include Bharti Airtel, MTNL, Reliance Jio Infocomm and Vodafone Idea.
The six-month trial period includes a two-month period for procurement and setting up of the equipment, as per an official statement.
For the trials, TSPs have tied up with original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and technology providers like C-DOT, Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung, besides Jio – which will also be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology.
Permissions given are as per priorities and technology partners identified by TSPs themselves, it added. DoT has specified that the trials will be non-commercial and are to be conducted in isolation without connection to the TSPs’ existing networks.
TSPs are also expected to facilitate testing of indigenously developed use cases and equipment as part of the trials. Further, around 100 applications or use cases selected by DoT can also be facilitated in these trials.
The experimental spectrum is being given in various bands, including the mid-band (3.2 GHz to 3.67 GHz), millimetre wave band (24.25 GHz to 28.5 GHz) and in Sub-Gigahertz band (700 GHz). Besides this, TSPs will also be permitted to use their existing spectrum owned by them (800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz and 2500 MHz) for the trials.
Each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G technology proliferates across the country and is not confined to urban areas alone, it added.
The objective of conducting trials, the statement said, is to include testing 5G spectrum propagation characteristics 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 or virtual reality, drone-based agricultural monitoring, etc.); and to test 5G phones and devices.
Further, TSPs are encouraged to conduct trials using 5Gi technology besides the known 5G tech.
Notably, 5Gi tech was developed by IIT Madras, Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology (CEWiT) and IIT Hyderabad. It has been approved by International Telecommunications Union (ITU) as it “facilitates much larger reach of 5G towers and Radio networks”.
The government expects 5G tech to deliver improved user experience in terms of data download rates (10x of 4G), up to three times greater spectrum efficiency, and ultra-low latency to enable Industry 4.0 or Internet of Things (IoT).
Applications of 5G cover a wide range of sectors such as agriculture, education, health, IoT, smart cities, smart homes, transport and traffic management.
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