Nokia, Ericsson ink multi-year contracts to power Reliance Jio's 5G network

Ericsson and Nokia will power Reliance Jio’s 5G network, the European telecommunication (telecom) gear makers announced on Monday. The Swedish and Finnish suppliers have inked multi-year supply contracts with Jio for supplying 5G network equipment to the country’s largest carrier.

Under its contract, Nokia will supply equipment from its AirScale radio portfolio, including base stations, high-capacity 5G radio antennae, and remote radio heads to support different spectrum bands and self-organising network software.

Jio will deploy a standalone 5G network, which will interwork with its 4G network and enable it to provide services such as machine-to-machine communication, network slicing, and ultra-low latency.

“All products and solutions are deployed on the new-build 5G standalone networks designed to maximise the benefits of 5G to communication service providers and their customers,” said Ericsson.

Telecom networks comprise four distinct parts – a radio access network, a core network, a transport network, and an interconnect network.

A 5G standalone network requires a new core, while a non-standalone network leverages the existing 4G infrastructure to offer higher speeds and low latency.

Bharti Airtel is deploying a non-standalone network for its 5G services and has selected Samsung, in addition to the two European gear makers for its network.

 “Jio 5G will be the world’s largest and most advanced 5G network,” Reliance Industries Chairman Mukesh Ambani had said at the company’s annual general meeting in August.

Jio will be investing around Rs 2 trillion to develop its 5G network and plans to expand countrywide coverage by December 2023.  

Commercial 5G services began on October 1.

While Airtel is offering the service in eight cities, Jio is carrying out a beta trial in four (Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Varanasi) until significant completion of the network coverage in those cities.

While new sites are being activated in these cities by installing radio access networks, many subscribers are yet to get access to the service. This is because the 5G-enabled devices are yet to receive a software update.

Last week, the Ministry of Communications convened a meeting of telecom service providers and handset makers for a status update on device readiness.

Samsung will release the necessary over-the-air software updates for all its 5G-enabled smartphones by mid-November, outpacing Apple, which will release the same in December for all 5G-enabled iPhone models in India. This will enable the owners of Samsung and iPhone 5G-enabled devices to finally tap into the super-fast service.