5G Network Trial Begins in India, Jio & Airtel Races

Mukesh Ambani led Reliance Jio has initiated 5G trials in Mumbai as it competes with rival Bharti Airtel to roll out the mobile technology in India.

While Jio’s trials carried out in Mumbai are using indigenously developed technology, the firm has associated with multinational vendors, such as Ericsson, Nokia, and Samsung for trials in Delhi, Pune, and Gujarat.

The Department of Telecommunications had in May allocated 5G trial spectrum in 700-megahertz (MHz), 3.2-3.6-gigahertz (GHz), and 24.25-28.5-GHz bands to Airtel, Jio, and Vodafone Idea to develop India-specific use-cases. Jio is utilizing standalone 5G architecture for its trials and this would include testing of core and radio network for peak speed, latency, and data loads, said a source.

Trials in other cities is expected commence soon and would need to be completed in six months, according to the spectrum licence conditions.

Last year, the Mukesh Ambani-led major had collaborated with Qualcomm to develop open and interoperable interface-compliant. 5G solutions and had achieved 1 gigabits per second (Gbps) download speed during the trails.

Industry sources reveal that Airtel too has begun the testing 5G trials in Gurugram in association with communication service provider Ericsson. The tests demonstrated a throughput of over 1 Gbps during the live trial.

On new postpaid fibre plans, Reliance Jio has launched its postpaid fibre plans for broadband internet with zero upfront entry cost. The plans is expected to be priced upwards of Rs 399 and are available with 6-12 month options. Customers would get a set-top box and up to 15 paid over-the-top applications on plans priced 999 and above.

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