Reliance Jio, the number one telecommunications operator in India, is reportedly talking to European telecommunications equipment vendors, including Nokia and Ericsson, for 5G equipment. The telco has only partnered with Samsung for its 4G deployment. But a Business Standard report says Jio wants to diversify and partner with other vendors to run 5G. Jio has previously partnered with Ericsson for 5G trials in Delhi; however, the plans did not materialize.
Jio is currently seeking new permission to conduct trials with Ericsson in Mumbai. But the telco does not have much time left, as the spectrum auction date has been set for July 26th. Not only in Mumbai, Jio also sought to conduct the trials in Jamnagar, Gujarat.
With Nokia, telecommunications is only in the state of conversations. There have been no plans yet for any trials envisaged by the companies.
Jio has developed its own 5G stack
Jio said earlier that although he is looking forward to deploying his own 5G stack, the company is open to partnerships with other providers. For the most part, Jio has kept quiet about its 5G developments compared to Vodafone Idea (Vi) and Bharti Airtel.
Kiran Thomas, president of Jio, said earlier this year that telco plans to cover the top 1000 cities in India with its 5G network. How soon this is going to happen is something we will have to wait and see. There are currently talks that the telcos will not bid heavily on the 5G spectrum auction. If true, all the plans already put in place by the telecommunications operators will take a back seat.
The telecommunications companies were particularly dissatisfied with the government’s decision to allow the companies to get a direct allocation of the spectrum from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for captured private 5G networks. Jio has yet to officially comment on his talks with Nokia and the new trials with Ericsson.
