New 5G research committee has initial budget of $76 million for research
The government of India has announced plans to establish a dedicated 5G committee to develop a roadmap for the rollout of the technology by 2020, according to Indian press reports.
The group, dubbed the ‘High Level Forum on 5G India 2020’ will comprise senior officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the Ministry of Electronics and IT (MeitY) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST).
Industry stakeholders and academics will also take part in the initiative. The committee will initially have access to funds totaling 5 billion rupees ($76 million) to finance research and development activities
The government believes future deployments of next-generation services will facilitate the provision of 10 Gbps speeds in urban areas and 1 Gbps connections in rural locations across India.
“We missed the opportunity to participate when the standards were being set for 3G and 4G, but don’t want to miss the 5G opportunity. Now when the standards are being set for 5G across the world, India will also participate in the process,” India’s Telecommunications Minister Manoj Sinha said.
The minister also said the primary goal of the committee is to achieve early deployment in India and a globally competitive product development and manufacturing ecosystem.
Bharti Airtel deploys Massive MIMO technology in India
Also in India, local telecom operator Bharti Airtel partnered with Huawei to deploy massive MIMO technology in Bengaluru.
“As India goes digital, there is an unprecedented rise in demand for higher network speeds to feed data hungry mobile applications. Massive MIMO is the best technology to boost spectrum efficiency and is one of the key solutions for Huawei’s 4.5G/5G evolution,” reps for the Chinese ICT vendor said in a statement.
“We have partnered with Huawei for the deployment of our latest technological advancement – massive MIMO, the first step towards 5G,” Bharti Airtel Networks Director Abhay Savargaonkar, said. “As India strides towards exponential and unprecedented data growth, we are now better equipped to serve this growing demand with a strategic advantage to provide faster speeds and enhanced user experience to customers,” Savargaonkar added.
