Major telecom companies appear to be gearing up to bring the futuristic 5G network technology to India in the near future. Chinese telecom gear and smartphone manufacturer ZTE has started conducting pre-5G trials with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone.
The high-speed 5G network technology is expected to come to Indian consumers in 2020 and the Indian government is also set to auction off spectrum that supports 5G network for the first time.
Fan Xiaobing, president of global marketing and solutions for ZTE, told Economic Times that the company is eager to bring 5G technology to India which is one of the largest markets in the world in terms of user base. The introduction of 4G LTE networks resulted in huge data growth in the country, so the company is eager to bring the new technology by collaborating with the major telecom service providers.
"India is a very important market for us. Telecom industry is all about scale, and India offers scale. Indian telecom market will grow very fast. We are increasing our investments in India to support growth," Fan told ET.
"We will develop future technology products around 5G technology in India," he added.
The report said that ZTE has already started conducting pre-5G trials with Bharti Airtel, Vodafone, and Reliance Jio. It has also signed a deal with state-owned Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) for network expansion in the north and east, and to provide 5G equipment for the telecom service provider in future.
"Our focus in now on advanced technologies like 5G in India. We are the only company that is doing pre-5G trials with Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio. We are also providing 5G ready massive mimo technology to Bharti Airtel," said Peng Aiguang, chief executive officer at ZTE India. He went on to say that the company is expected to have new partnerships with the Indian telecom operators around 5G backhaul which are needed to bring wireless 5G communications.
