India has given domestic telecom companies and network equipment vendors the go-ahead to conduct a six-month trial on 5G technology. However, none of the networking equipment that will be used for testing will be from China. The decision to exclude Chinese players could have been made due to the recent border tensions with India’s neighbours. 

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Even though companies like Huawei were granted permission to participate in India’s 5G trial phase last year, it seems like the company has been excluded for now. Chinese network equipment will be excluded from the trials while companies like Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, and C-DOT kit have been granted permission by the Department of Telecommunications. The announcement came via a statement by the Ministry of Communications. 

Indian telecom companies like Reliance Jio, Airtel, MTNL and Vodafone have been granted permission to conduct trials using their own technology or via key vendors. For the trials, telecom companies will use an experimental spectrum doled out by the Indian Government. These bands are spread across the mid-band, millimetre wave band, and the sub-gigahertz band. The telecom companies have also been granted permission to use their own spectrum for 5G trials. 

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The trials will be required to be conducted in three different settings i.e. rural, semi-urban settings, and urban settings so that 5G technology is not exclusive to urban areas, the Ministry of Communications said. Telecom companies have also been told to run the tests on a non-commercial basis and should not be connected to any of the existing networks. 

5G trials are slated to begin six months after Reliance Jio CEO Mukesh Ambani announced that the company will be rolling out its own 5G networks by the end of 2021. "I assure you that Jio will pioneer the 5G revolution in India in the second half of 2021," said Ambani, during the India Mobile Congress 2020 keynote. 

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