5G Challenges, Opportunities Await in India

Reports indicate that India is behind the curve in its work related to 5G cellular networks. But this is a huge market. And, despite 5G-related challenges there, all of the big infrastructure suppliers are pushing to get a seat at the table for 5G networks in this country.

Ericsson, Huawei (News - Alert), and Nokia have all been in discussions with Indian telecommunications network operators. According to the Economic Times, Bharti Airtel (News - Alert) and BSNL are working with Nokia to define 5G network strategies and use cases. Meanwhile, Ericsson has been talking with those and other carriers about 5G plug-ins. And a separate story for the news outlet talks about how Huawei has begun talks with Indian telcos and hopes to do some 5G trials with them starting next year.

In the meantime, Huawei has been staging 5G workshops for network operators in India. And the infrastructure solutions provider has been talking about the benefits of 5G and the work the Indian government is doing to make spectrum available in the 3400MHz and 3600MHz bands.

The Economic Times in late April reported that telecom operators want 4G and 5G spectrum auctions to be held next spring rather than in 2018, per the government’s plans.

“The timing (of the auction of any band) should be latter part of 2018 and early part of 2019 once all the consolidation has been announced and locked down,” said Rajan Mathews, director general of Cellular Operators Association of India, which represents Bharti Airtel, Idea Cellular, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone (News - Alert) India. “Only after that would companies look at any additional spectrum needs after they put their networks together.”
 

But getting spectrum is just one of the challenges that India’s cellular network operators and their suppliers face in getting 5G networks and services up and running. Another major 5G challenge in India is the lack of strong networks to support cellular backhaul. This becomes a more important issue with 5G given this new cellular technology will support higher bandwidth, and thus require more robust backhaul capabilities.