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Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) on Tuesday welcomed the Department of Telecom (DoT) decision to approve the applications of telecom service providers (TSPs) for conducting 5G trials.
Director-General of COAI, Lieutenant General Dr SP Kochhar in a statement said the move will stimulate local research and development (R and D) ecosystem. "We welcome the government's decision to start exhaustive 5G trials in different categories of locations across India. It will stimulate the local R and D ecosystem to develop innovative applications tailored to commercial needs. It will enable TSPs to validate 5G technologies and use cases such as IoT and Industry 4.0. We hope the Govt. will also look into the industry's call for revisiting the 5G spectrum pricing," said Dr Kochhar. Earlier today, the DoT approved applications of telecom service providers (TSPs) -- Bharti Airtel Ltd., Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd., Vodafone Idea Ltd. and MTNL -- for conducting 5G. Ministry of Communications said these TSPs have tied up with original equipment manufacturers and technology providers-- Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung and C-DOT. In addition, Reliance JioInfocomm Ltd. will also be conducting trials using its own indigenous technology. Notably, the duration of the trials, at present, is for a period of 6 months. This includes a time period of 2 months for procurement and setting up of the equipment. The permission letters specify that each TSP will have to conduct trials in rural and semi-urban settings also in addition to urban settings so that the benefit of 5G Technology proliferates across the country and is not confined only to urban areas. Ministry said that the TSPs are encouraged to conduct trials using 5Gi technology in addition to the already known 5G Technology. (ANI)
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