The race for 5G has also started in India
The marathon to turn on the fifth generation mobile networks has also started in the subcontinent. Between business opportunities and a geopolitical game
The launch of Jio in India (Getty: Anindito Mukherjee / Bloomberg) One of the latest moves, in the great game that is moving around 5G in India, has been made by Intel. The American multinational a few days ago stated that it will work with the Indian telecommunications company Reliance Jio to develop innovation regarding 5G technology. A few days after Reliance CEO, Mukesh Ambani assured: his creation will be the first to take the epochal step and launch 5G services in India.5G underway
Years later of declarations and months of waiting, the 5G train seems to have finally begun to advance at a rapid pace in the subcontinent. Thanks to the green light from the authorities, which arrived in May, two of the most important local operators, Airtel and Jio, have already started testing the next generation technology in Mumbai, Delhi, Pune and in the state of Gujarat. This phase is expected to last six months and include other major Indian metropolises, but also urban, semi-urban and rural contexts.The roadmap, according to the Indian press, will be closely followed. The first official declaration (of intent) dates back to June 2019 when the then Minister of Telecommunications, Ravi Shankar Prasad, stated that the government of the re-elected Prime Minister Modi would start technical tests on 5G within 100 days, heralding a real and own revolution in telecommunication services offered to Indian citizens.
Chinese crisis
The pandemic has obviously slowed down the pace, but also a widespread debate on the safety and reliability of the equipment produced by China, with which the India, for a year now, has been grappling with a tense military stalemate on the border. Not surprisingly, in the same days in which the Indian government approved the "conduct of trials for the use and applications of fifth generation mobile telephony", the list of companies authorized by the ministry included Bharti Airtel, Reliance JioInfocomm, Vodafone Idea and Mtnl (which will collaborate with the giants Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung), but no Chinese company, despite the declared interest of the latter, and the "regret" promptly expressed by the Chinese embassy in India.The big companies excluded are called Huawei and ZTE, says Nicola Missaglia of the India desk of the Ispi (Institute for International Political Studies). “The Indian decision was not overtly anti-Chinese, but it is in fact. A geopolitical match is evidently taking place, but we know well that this does not only concern India, but also the United States and Europe, which are wondering whether or not to use Chinese technology in certain areas - remembers Missaglia -. To this picture is added, for India, a theme of nationalism and competition for primacy in Asia, and 5G is one of the fields on which this competition is clearly developing ".
National strategy
In particular, Missaglia explains, a security issue was raised on the issue of telecommunications infrastructure, so much so that a few days ago the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi amended the laws on telecommunications, by inserting a specific reference to the issue. “After that, in India, Chinese technology is present on three quarters of the Indian telecommunications infrastructure, for example Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea use it for their 4G networks. If this fails, there will be problems with prices and a lack of raw materials, because we will have to wait for Reliance Jio, ”says Missaglia.Reliance Jio is also conducting tests using its own technology. According to the Indian newspaper Business Standard, not only will the Indian 5G network be based solely on technology and hardware developed by local companies, large and small, in the government's plans, but there is already an official, and very significant, date for commercial launch. : on 15 August 2022, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the country's independence.
The wait is global, because the interest is general. "We are talking about a country of 1.3 billion people, a gigantic market, the second in the world for numbers of mobile phone users - reflects Missaglia -." The pandemic, and with it the lockdowns, distances and prolonged transport blocks have even increased the use of mobile technology. We are also talking about a young nation, the average age is 25 years and for these generations the potential is incredible: this is why the interest at the moment comes from all the players in the field ".
Wanting to quantify, according to the latest data, the average traffic per user in the country has risen to 14.6 giga per month in 2020, compared to 13 giga per month in 2019, but a real surge is expected in 2021. According to the expert, despite the dramatic months of the second wave of the pandemic, and the now certain prospect of a third wave within a few months, the prospect of growth remains very high: "India will return to growth at a rapid pace, the class media will return to expand and the economic and technological interest, behind which there is a geopolitical factor, will ensure that the hold of 5G in India will hold its own for a long time ".
Smartphone - 18 hours ago
OnePlus Nord 2 review, balance and reliability
The map of the countries most at risk of climate change and pollution
How green pass checks work in other countries
Topics
5G China Intel telecommunications globalData.fldTopic = "5G, China, Intel, telecommunications"
This opera is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
