Month: December 2020

Airtel announced “Local 5G Technology” A Big Threat To Telecom Ecosystem.Bharti Airtel South Asia CEO Gopal Vittal on Tuesday said that India’s local 5G standard poses an existential threat to the telecom ecosystem in the country and its adoption could lock India out of the global ecosystem.

He said that India needs to embrace the global 5G standard to leverage the global ecosystem including telecom gear and devices.

“There is talk of India is having its own 5G standards, this is an existential threat which could lock India out of the global ecosystem and slow down the pace of innovation,” Vittal said at the India Mobile Congress, further adding that such a move would lead India’s citizens down if it were to happen.

Vittal compared the current situation to the CDMA versus the GSM debate in which he said the reason why GSM triumphed over the former, despite CDMA being technologically superior was because GSM was more widely adopted.

Indian standard body TSDSI’s 5G radio interface technology, 5Gi, recently cleared the rigorous processes of International Telecommunication Union (ITU) and has been approved by the SG5 of ITU as a part of Draft Recommendation IMT-2020.SPECS in its meeting held on 23rd November 2020.

The standard will now be circulated by ITU to member states for adoption and approval. Specifications are expected to be published by ITU in early February 2021.

TSDSI’s 5G standard specification calls for deployment of 5G services in the 3.4 Ghz band and suggests mobile towers be spaced 12 km apart in villages — instead of the standard 6 km — to ensure ubiquitous 5G coverage in rural India.

This is at odds with 3GPP’s 5G standard that backs 5G deployment in the 700 Mhz band and wants mobile towers to be spaced 6 kms apart. The 3GPP’s standards govern LTE networks operations worldwide, and its suggested 5G standard has been backed by the International Telecom Union (ITU).

Interestingly, Reliance Jio had strongly backed the India-specific 5G standard proposed by local standards agency, Telecom Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI), saying its acceptance can lead to the first Indian IPR (intellectual property rights) on the global 5G stage. Jio is working on its own-developed 5G technology.

Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea (Vi), though, cautioned the government about gaps in the India-centric 5G standard specifications, saying they don’t inter-operate with global standards recommended by the 3GPP, and hence won’t be viable for commercial deployment.

As per COAI, TSDSI already conceded that its 5G specifications do not interoperate with globally defined 3GPP standards.

“5Gi, the first ever Mobile Radio Interface Technology contribution from India to become part of ITU-R’s IMT recommendation, went through a rigorous evaluation process of the ITU-R working groups over the past 3 years before getting the approval,” TSDSI said in a statement.

“This standard is a major breakthrough for bridging the rural-urban digital divide in 5G deployment due to enhanced coverage. It enables connecting majority of India’s villages through towers located at gram panchayats in a cost effective manner. It has found support from several countries as it addresses their regional needs from a 5G standpoint,” TSDSI added.

Earlier this year, the global mobile supplier association (GSA) had also reached out to the telecom department to express concerns over local 5G standards, and said that it will lead to interoperability issues between devices and networks. Jio has backed the TSDSI in its recommendations.

Vittal also asked for a stable and simple regulatory environment to enable fast growth of digital India. “We must have enabling policies that continue to keep access to technology affordable. Affordable to lay down fibre, which is the node of Digital India. Affordable spectrum that allows us to build networks that India deserves,” he said.

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