New Delhi: India’s telecom regulatory agency (TRAI) has started a pilot test of 5G networks in four areas with the major telecom service providers ahead of the spectrum auctions starting Tuesday.
The TRAI has led pilot testing at 11 locations in Bhopal Smart City to test 5G readiness using street furniture such as traffic light poles, street lights, billboards, road signs, pedestrian bridges and bus shelters in the city.
5G small cells over street furniture were also deployed at Deendayal Port Kandla, GMR International Airport, New Delhi and at Namma Metro Bengaluru’s MG Road station, with the major telcos – Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea and BSNL taking part in the taste.
“These pilots will be very useful in making cross-sector infrastructure more accessible for rapid deployment of the 5G networks for telcos, post assignment of 5G frequencies by means of Point‘ said Trai.
The tests were conducted with small cells, which are compact, low-power, easy-to-deploy radio access nodes with a coverage range from a few meters to a few hundred meters.
TRAI said that small cells will be crucial in the rollout of 5G in India, as the high-frequency signals from large macro towers need to be supplemented with a large number of small cells for densification.
“In the long-term, 5G infrastructure densification can exceed 1,000 base stations per square kilometer,” said a DoT report on “Getting India 5G ready.’