Huawei is seeking 5G network deals in India – after partnering with Indian telecom operators Vodafone Idea and Bharti Airtel for conducting 5G trials.
India is yet to announce its spectrum pricing policy and the timing of the spectrum auction for selling 5G bands. It is believed 5G spectrum auction in India will not happen in the next 12 months due to debt conditions of major telecoms.
Huawei, the number one telecom equipment maker, expects India to emerge as second-largest 5G market in 10 years. China will be the largest 5G market in the world, PTI reported.
James Wu, president, Southern-East Asia region at Huawei Technologies, is looking for 5G presence in India at a time when United States and several European countries have blocked or are in the process of banning Huawei from 5G network supply deals due to security concerns.
Huawei 5G achievements
# Released 5G pre-commercial solutions
# 50 business partners for 5G commercial use
# 30 5G commercial contracts
# Delivered over 40,000 5G base stations
Telecom industry body GSMA has projected that there will be 1.4 billion 5G connections globally by 2025, accounting for about 15 percent of the total market. Almost 50 percent of connections in the United States will be 5G, 30 percent will be 5G in China, and 5 percent in India in 2025.
The Chinese telecom gear maker has expressed willingness to set up 5G test lab in India as well.
“If the Government of India invites us for setting 5G test lab, we will welcome it,” James Wu, president, Southern-East Asia region at Huawei Technologies told reporters at the Mobile World Congress (MWC 2019).
Earlier, Samsung Electronics expressed eagerness to work with Reliance Jio, the leading 4G operator in India, for preparing the company for launching 5G services.
Both Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have not yet selected their technology partner for 5G network. Recently, India telecom minister indicated that the country would not ban Huawei from supplying 5G networks.
Meanwhile, LG Uplus and Huawei announced the establishment of 5G network in South Korea. LG Uplus has completed the deployment of more than 10,000 sites. LG Uplus and Huawei will demonstrate the HD video and VR services based on 5G networks and enable new 5G commercial applications.
Incidentally, both Korea Telecom and SK Telecom, the main rival of LG Uplus, did not select Huawei for the 5G roll outs.
Huawei will release a 5G commercial system on February 25, 2019 to provide a simplified 5G solution, including network simplification, simplified architecture, simplified site, low power consumption, and simplified O&M.
Huawei helps customers reduce deployment costs, support fast commercial deployment, and build the best 5G network.
Baburajan K
