Jio, Chinese telcos join hands for 5G tech

Reliance Jio on Wednesday said it has joined hands with Chinese telecom operators and other international technology companies to develop 5G network solutions based on open standards and support interoperability.

The leading telecom players and vendors have come together to start an Open Test and Integration Centre (OTIC).

The companies include "China Mobile and Reliance Jio along with participation from China Telecom, China Unicom, Intel, Radisys, Samsung Electronics, Airspan, Baicells, CertusNet, Mavenir, Lenovo, Ruijie Network, Inspur, Sylincom, WindRiver, ArrayComm, and Chengdu NTS," Jio said in a statement.

These firms "are collaborating on multi-vendor interoperability and validation activities for realizing O-RAN compliant disaggregated 5G access infrastructure that leverages open software and hardware hardened for commercial deployments," it added.

Airtel, NTT Docomo, Softbank, SK Telecom, Singtel, Ericsson, Nokia and Qualcomm are also members of the open radio access network (O-RAN) but select players from the alliance have announced collaboration for the OTIC.

"We are fast-tracking our efforts in 5G and Open technologies by developing and working with OTIC to accelerate the adoption of industry standard, interoperable O-RAN based deployments," Reliance Jio President Mathew Oommen said.

OTIC alliance has invited additional partners to join the network to advance the creation of ready-to-implement blueprints for wireless telecom network solutions conforming to O-RAN specifications in order to realise open and disaggregated 5G networks, it added.