5G in India will soon be a Reality, as Reliance jio starts advance tests

India is stepping up the pace in its quest for 5G deployment in the country. The biggest highlight of India’s preparations for 5G deployment comes courtesy Reliance Jio Infocomm’s financial report for the latest quarter ended December 2020, which reported a 15.5 per cent quarterly jump in net profit and a 5.3 percent quarterly jump in operational revenue, along with a 6.4 percent rise in the operator’s EBITDA (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization).

Mukesh Ambani doubled down on his promise to offer 5G services on his wireless network as early as this year. The group’s wireless operator, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd. has started advance tests to prepare the fifth-generation, high-speed network, it said in a statement Friday. But Ambani’s plans hinge on the availability of spectrum as the Indian government still hasn’t auctioned the required airwaves.

Jio’s work on developing a full-stack 5G infrastructure within India is a positive move for the Indian 5G network sector, further promoting the central government-backed ‘aatmanirbhar’ and ‘make in India’ initiatives. For one, having our stack of 5G network equipment can drastically reduce dependence on foreign players such as the highly controversial Chinese Huawei Electronics, as well as other global contributors such as Nokia and Ericsson. Once fully developed and running, India can also become an export hub to supply other nations with the requisite 5G network infrastructure, thereby seeing a set of homegrown network equipment range being deployed around the world.

The development of 5G Small Cell by Reliance Jio can help micro-deployment of network infrastructure in areas that have typically seen poor service quality, therefore significantly improving the overall quality both in terms of data speeds and availability, and voice calls. Without the added burden of import costs, this can also allow Indian telecom operators to serve 5G networks to users at super affordable prices.

2021 is geared to be a critical year for 5G and telecom infrastructure in India. With commercial deployment on the horizon, and leading nations around the world already pushing its 5G networks widely, India looks set to be one of the biggest players in the world to be setting up its own 5G infrastructure and use the same not just for domestic deployment but offering the services on a global scale.