Bharti Airtel announced yesterday that it has commercially tested 5G in Hyderabad and got great results. As per an ET Telecom report, Airtel has further said that ‘Make in India’ is a very crucial part of its 5G rollout in India. The telco is looking to source 5G network equipment from local manufacturers in the country. Nokia and Ericsson are two of the biggest radio equipment suppliers of the telco. They have agreed to manufacture 5G radio equipment in their Chennai and Pune facilities respectively —more details on the story ahead.
Airtel in Talks With Vendors to Manufacture 5G Network Equipment Locally
Randeep Sekhon, Chief Technology Officer, Airtel said that the telco is in talks with all of its partners to bring their manufacturing of 5G to India. He said that once 5G starts, the company will need locally manufactured equipment. Airtel is currently talking with Tejas networks for making wireline products and US-based flex for 5G gear. The telco is also asking its partners such as Ciena, Cisco, and Nokia, to manufacture IP and optical products locally. The telco is developing its 5G network technologies in India with the help of R&D along with US and Japanese firms. Developing everything locally will help the telco massively in rolling out its 5G at a cheaper cost. Further, it will have solid control over the supply chain of technology and equipment.
DoT Reduced Notice Period to 6 Months Deploying New Technology Using Spectrum
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is helping the telecom operators in rolling out 5G at a faster speed. As per a PTI report, DoT has asked the operators to give a six-month notice before using the spectrum to deploy any new kind of technology. Earlier, this rule used to be one year. This meant that for any operator to rollout any new technology using the spectrum had to wait one year after giving the notice to the telecom department about it. Since the wait time has been reduced to six months, it will help operators make innovations faster and roll out new technologies as soon as possible. The spectrum auction is only a month away with January coming to an end. The government has put 700, 800, 900, 1800, 2100, 2300, and 2500 MHz spectrum in the auction. Airtel has already demonstrated how it can provide 5G through the airwaves in the 1800 MHz band. Thus it will be interesting to see how operators fight for the airwaves in the upcoming auctions.
