5G in India: Nokia partners with Airtel, BSNL to develop technology network

Partnership to involve demonstrations and development of relevant, unique use cases to provide high-speed network across the country

Finnish telecom gear maker Nokia is collaborating with telcos including Bharti Airtel and state-run BSNL to prepare a roadmap for the development of 5G network in the country, besides working on how to build a conducive ecosystem for the same.
 

The company, which has got a 5G IoT (internet of things) lab in Bangalore, will jointly conduct 5G demonstrations and develop relevant and unique use cases around the technology.

"We have signed several memorandum of understanding (MoUs) with Bharti to collaborate on a strategic roadmap for network evolution to 5G technology standards and the management of connected devices. With BSNL, we have partnered to develop a 5G ecosystem in the country and will jointly conduct 5G demonstrations and develop relevant and unique use cases to provide ultra-high-speed and ultra low-latency network to its subscribers," Sanjay Malik, Head of India, Nokia told Business Standard.

Nokia's 5G IoT lab in Bangalore demonstrates how it is making IoT a reality for smart cities and public safety, besides showcasing how the framework can be used to manage the connectivity of things.

The government is also laying much focus on 5G and is working on to create a Rs 500-crore fund for the development of the technology. A high-level committee under the chairmanship of the Telecom Secretary has also been created to work on a roadmap for the proposed roll-out of 5G by 2020.

India is looking at 5G as a major opportunity in terms of offering the kind of services that rural India needs, including tele-health and tele-eduction services. along with bandwidth-heavy applications that can drive development and 5G is expected to play a big role in that.

Nokia feels that 5G will not happen overnight and it will be an evolutionary path through 4.5G and 4.9G. As per the company, the potential 5G use cases in India fall under virtual reality, augmented reality and gaming.

Secondly, the use cases will be around massive connectivity thrust towards smart lighting, smart parking and IoT smart cities.

5G will support new massive broadband applications by combining network speeds above 10 Gbps with extremely low latency. It is likely to stimulate growth in many sectors, including the Information Technology (IT), automotive, entertainment, agriculture, and manufacturing industries. As per Nokia, as 5G emerges, more safety and business-critical applications will run on the wireless network.