A committee has been set up to develop a framework for the 5G trials. It will define the size of the trial, duration of the trial, quantum of spectrum, number of locations, etc.
The Department of Telecom (DoT) will “carefully” study before taking a decision on whether to allow Chinese firms to participate in the 5G trials in India or not.
As many countries have expressed security concerns over the use of communications equipment from Chinese vendors, Telecom Secretary Aruna Sundararajan said India will also study it very “carefully”.
She was speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the launch of India’s first indigenous semiconductor chips by Signalchip on Wednesday.
Sundararajan also informed that a committee has been set up to come up with a framework for the 5G trials.
According to her, the committee will look at several things, including the size of the trial, the duration of the trial and a lot of other parameters like quantum of spectrum, number of locations, etc.
The debate over ban on Huawei
The United States and several countries in Europe are considering banning China’s Huawei Technologies, despite big telecom operators warning that such a move could delay the deployment of 5G.
Vodafone Chief Executive Officer Nick Read has already expressed that blocking Huawei would not be good for the industry, as it represents one of the three major telecom vendors in the world.
Nokia CEO Rajeev Suri, however, downplayed concerns that a reduced field of technology vendors could slow network upgrades. He had recently said that the possible exclusion of Huawei on security grounds will not delay the rollout of next-generation 5G services in European markets.
Huawei is awaiting approval from DoT
Huawei is currently awaiting approval from the telecom department for conducting 5G trials in the country. The company along with its telecom operator partners had submitted a joint application for 5G trials in December last year.
Besides Huawei, Ericsson and Samsung have also applied to DoT for 5G trials.
It should be mentioned here that Huawei had got permission from the DoT to conduct 5G trials in India in October. But until it gets a go-ahead nod, spectrum will not be allocated to it for trials.
Meanwhile, the Chinese company has already started working with Bharti Airtel for a laboratory test on the 5G technology.
