Two of India’s major operators have submitted proposals to carry out 5G field trials for a year before introducing it to the market.
Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtell, Samsung, Cisco, Ericsson and Nokia have all submitted proposals to India’s Department of Telecom outlining details of how they plan to test this technology.
The operators are yet to receive approvals to move forward with the trials. Preparations and clearances are expected to take three months prior to the testing, according to the Cellular Operators’ Association of India (COAI).
Previously, the Department of Telecom in India was reluctant to wards allocating airwaves for 5G trials for more than 90 days. The industry believed that 90 days would have not given them enough time to carry out the trials that were required.
With regards to the proposed allocations, according to COAI, the final agreement between the telecom industry and the Department of Telecommunications is expected to be ready soon.
It has been recommended by the Telecoms regulator of India that a frequency of 3.5-GHz for 5G would be the most ideal and the regulatory body has also expressed that it aims to complete the initial 5G spectrum auction by the beginning of 2020.
