Reliance Jio and Bharti Airtel Kick off 5G Network Trials in India

Reliance Jio has commenced 5G trials in Mumbai as it races with rival Bharti Airtel to introduce the mobile technology in India.

While Jio’s trials in Mumbai are being carried out using indigenously developed technology, the company has tied up with multinational vendors, including 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 using standalone 5G architecture for its trials and this will include testing of core and radio network for peak speed, latency, and data loads, said a source.

Tests in other cities will commence soon and will need to be completed in six months, according to the spectrum licence conditions.

Last year, the Mukesh Ambani-led company had tied up with Qualcomm to develop open and interoperable interface-compliant.

5G solutions and had achieved 1 gigabits per second (Gbps) download speed during the tests.

According to industry sources, Airtel too has started testing 5G trials in Gurugram in partnership with communication service provider Ericsson. The tests demonstrated a throughput of over 1 Gbps during the live trial, said sources.

New postpaid fibre plans

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

Source: Business Standard