Anil Jain, chief general manager – NGN, Bharat Sanchar Nigam (BSNL), indicated that BSNL will aim to launch 5G services in 2020.
“BSNL would launch 5G services the same day as their launch globally. India would not miss the 5G bus unlike the past instances of global adoption of 3G and 4G,” Anil Jain said at the inaugural edition of the Mobile Device Summit 2018, hosted by industry body The Mobile Association.
BSNL, a telecom operator owned by India Government, has earlier signed an agreement with Nokia for the preparation of 5G trials. At present, telecom regulator TRAI is in the process of finalizing 5G spectrum allocation and pricing policy.
TEC announced relaxation in mobile handset compliance beyond 1 October 2018 as a major relief to the mobile handset makers.
“While the scheme for compliance with new essential requirements or ERs is on schedule starting 1 October, the mobile device industry will be exempted from the same for a couple of months. This relaxation would extend till the end of the festive season of 2018,” Shakeel Ahmad, DDG – Telecom Certification, Telecom Engineering Centre, said.
Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in a September 2017 notification, mandated that telecom equipments must undergo prior mandatory testing and certification carried out by Indian Accredited Labs. Telecommunications Engineering Centre (TEC) would issue compliance certificates based upon their test reports.
Sarabjeet Singh, country manager, Microsoft SwiftKey said: “We need more independent test labs which are accredited by TEC, otherwise it is very difficult for us to facilitate compliance with new rules.”
“The summit has received tremendous response from the industry which shows that such a platform was much needed,” said Bhawna Kumari, president, The Mobile Association.
