Govt invites Huawei to be part of 5G trials, says company's India CEO

Chinese telecom gear maker Huawei on Friday said it has received invitation from the Indian government to be a part of 5G trials in the country.

"We have received official invitation from the Department of Telecom (DoT) on September 27. We have submitted our proposal and now waiting for reply from the department," Huawei India CEO Jay Chen told PTI.

DoT has already approached Ericsson, Nokia, Samsung, Cisco and NEC for development of 5G applications and running trials on the suggestion of Stanford University Professor Emeritus Arogyaswami J Paulraj.

Paulraj is a member of the 5G panel that recently suggested spectrum roadmap for the technology.

"We have been informed that DoT has set up a committee to decide on zones for trials. The government intends to allocate 100 megahertz spectrum for 5G trials. Huawei has shown interest in running trial in Delhi and one more city. We also want to engage with state governments," Chen said.

Early this year, Huawei conducted 5G trials in laboratory with Bharti Airtel in India where it achieved broadband speed of more than 3 Gbps in 3.5 GHz spectrum band.

Chen said Huawei is focussing on fixed wireless access, enhanced mobile broadband, WTTX, which is delivering fiber quality broadband in wireless mode, and ultra high definition video transfer.

"We are investing in India with long-term vision. I see India to be the most dynamic country in terms of overall economic growth in next 5 years when Indian telecom sector will be full of hope and opportunities as things are moving in right direction. 5G is going to transform everything," Chen said.

The commercial rollout of 5G is expected to take place in India in 2020.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has recommended auction of about 8,644 MHz of telecom frequencies at an estimated base price of Rs 4.9 trillion.

The government expects to conduct auction to provide spectrum for 5G services in second half of 2019.

However, the DoT has started to develop ecosystem around 5G services so that telcos are able to get many applications that they can monetise from the time they start rolling out 5G networks in the country.