With the Government recently announcing the plans for the 5G connectivity, the Chinese-based ZTE has disclosed that the company is currently conducting trial runs in partnership with popular mobile service providers such as Vodafone, Reliance Jio, and Airtel. The company sources revealed that they are planning to design and develop products for trending technology such as 5G.
Responding to ET, Fan Xiaobing, Senior Vice President, ZTE said that the company is planning to introduce 5G on a large scale to bring in a wide range of opportunities. He added that India is a very important market for the company as the Telecom industry is about to scale.
The company is rapidly increasing the investments because the country is growing very fast. We have seen considerable growth in the 4G segment especially after the entry of Reliance Jio in 2016.
The aim of the ZTE is to manufacture exclusive telecom products customized for local consumption. The development of technology products will be centered around the growth of 5G in India. He confirmed that the competition is very intense in the Telecom area with companies like Nokia and Huawei making a positive impact. That said, ZTE is hopeful of growing its business faster in India when compared to other global markets.
In a significant development, ZTE has won a contract from the home-grown BSNL for expansion of the network in the east and north. Moreover, the company also entered into a partnership with BSNL to provide technical support for 5G in the upcoming future.
Commenting on the development, Peng Aiguang, Chief Executive Officer, ZTE India said that the current focus is on the development of 5G technology in India. In addition to conducting 5G trial run, the company is also involved in the deployment of the 5G-ready massive MIMO technology to Airtel.
In a bid to pump 5G by 2020, the Government has formulated a high-level committee, which will evaluate, approve and deploy roadmaps for the successful implementation of 5G. The IT ministry will soon conduct an auction for selling 5G spectrum.
Even though the estimated time frame is set to 2020, the 5G technology could roll out early 2019 since India deserves to get the ultimate advantage of the first country in the world to implement 5G. It remains to be seen as how state-run BSNL will implement 5G when they are yet to tap the rich benefits of 4G.
