- Samsung is getting ready to work with Indian telecom operators to prepare them for the upcoming 5G rollout.
- The South Korean tech giant already had a taste of success as the sole infrastructure partner behind Jio’s 4G network rollout.
- Samsung will compete against Nokia, Ericsson and maybe, Huawei, to provide Jio, Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel with 5G infrastructure for their new networks.
The company is looking to take advantage of the fact that it had deployed the massive network for Reliance Jio’s 4G services all by itself.
And, it’s not the only company looking to capitalise on the $27 billion market potential that India presents.
Meet the other players
Ericsson, the Swedish multinational company, is also working with Airtel and Vodafone Idea — two of the primary players in India’s telecom space — with their 5G infrastructure.
Nokia is working on India’s 5G spectrum and has already started manufacturing 5G radio equipment in its Chennai factory. The 5G New Radio (NR) is based on the new 5G standards that will increase the network’s capacity for transferring data, dole out lower latency and handle congestion better.
And, they’re all hoping that Huawei is cut from the race so that there is one less competitor to face, when 5G spectrum allocation finally takes place.
Huawei’s participation in the 5G race, as of now, still hangs in the balance. Indian government is yet to take a decision on the the Chinese company which was blacklisted by the US government — a move that Donald Trump, the US President, seems to be rolling back on.
Samsung’s 5G push
Samsung has the first-mover advantage with 5G. It was the first among global smartphone manufacturer to launch the world’s first 5G smartphone, the Galaxy S10 5G, earlier this year.
It also promoted its 5G solutions that can be applied to self-driving vehicles, smart factories and the Internet of Things (IoT).
Big money in the works
The Indian government is hoping to raise ₹6 trillion from the largest 5G spectrum auction ever, but the telecom lobby says that the planned base price is of the 5G spectrum is too high.
Rajan Mathews, the director general of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), stated, “The majority of our members believe the present pricing of the 5G spectrum is unaffordable and above even global discovered prices.”
5G is the fifth-generation of cellular network technology that is expected to boost connectivity speeds 20 times faster than 4G connections and reduce latency — the speed at which data gets from one point to the next — to as little as one millisecond.
This means, a full season of a TV series can be downloaded in minutes and users can engage in graphic rich cloud gaming without lag.
(with IANS inputs)
See also:
The Indian government wants to raise ₹6 trillion from the largest 5g spectrum auction ever
5G vendors claim India’s next-gen network rollout will still happen as scheduled
Ericsson's pact with Vodafone Idea is the next step towards a $27 billion goal