On March 2, Reliance Jio sought the government permission to conduct the trial of indigenously developed 5G technology. This is the first by any Indian technology company, as, so far, almost all the previous wireless communication technologies including 4G was developed by the foreign companies, and Indian companies collaborated with in order to provide the services.
Reliance Jio itself rolled out the 4G services in collaboration with South Korea based Samsung electronics and other companies like Airtel, Vodafone India also collaborated with foreign brands for the same.
But for 5G, given its future promises, the company has decided to roll out indigenous capacity instead depending on foreign companies like Huawei or Nokia. When US President Donald Trump asked Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani about the 5G plans, Ambani proudly announced, “We’re going to do 5G. We are the only network in the world that doesn’t have a single Chinese component.“
Later a few days ago, Economic Times reported a person from RIL says, “We have now developed everything end-to-end around 5G technology.” As per the report, the person added, “We are more scalable than these vendors and are fully automated since we have our own cloud-native platform. In 5G, we will totally be self-sufficient.”
Jio is probably first wireless communication company which is carrying out vertical expansion in the sector, as this model is not popular in foreign technology companies.
Most of the companies in the technology sector carry out horizontal expansion. Apple Inc. is probably only other technology company which operates on a vertical expansion model. “The move is perhaps a global first…We have now developed everything end-to-end around 5G technology,” said Jeff M. Smith, Author, Cold Peace: China-India Rivalry (2014), and Research Fellow, South Asia-Heritage Foundation.
Indian reporters: a story worth verifying/looking into.
"Reliance Jio has developed its own 5G and other technologies, to cut costs and reduce dependence on foreign vendors…The move is perhaps a global first…“We have now developed everything end-to-end around 5G technology.” https://t.co/CJukDfPNuZ
— Jeff M. Smith (@Cold_Peace_) March 10, 2020
The Jio Competitors- Airtel and Vodafone Idea have collaborated with Ericsson, Nokia, and Huawei to propose their 5G plan to the Department of Telecommunication, Government of India. The government is expected to auction the 5G spectrum very soon and has estimated to earn 4.6 lakh crore rupees.
Given the potential of the 5G technology, there is going to an all-out war between Reliance Jio and Huawei technologies, the largest and most advanced in 5G technology. The two others, Ericsson, a Swedish multinational and Nokia Corporation, a Finnish multinational, could not compete with Huawei technology in terms of technological advancement.
Therefore, the primary competition is between the Huawei technology and Reliance Jio. Given the deep pockets of Reliance Industries and aggressive vertical expansion of Mukesh Ambani led company in the technological world, the fight between Jio and Huawei will define India’s decade ahead in the 5G.
From some initial indications, the government was hesitant towards Huawei. It must be noted that as per an earlier report, a senior government official told The Indian Express, “Now that there are warnings from China (about reverse sanctions), the Indian government is also expected to adopt a different posture. If this was done through backdoor channels in the normal (diplomatic) course, it would have been better for Huawei. If the government concedes, it will be seen as pandering to Chinese (threats).”
Given the aggressive stance of Huawei technologies and Chinese government’s posturing on the matter, it is obvious that the Indian government is not going to be favourable towards Huawei. The company is already banned in many countries including the United States, given the security threats posed by it. Previously, it was revealed that Huawei was revealing important security data from Pentagon to China, and given the rivalry between Indian and its Eastern neighbour, Huawei is suspected to do the same from here.
Therefore, the government is not going to be easy on Huawei and this will benefit Reliance Jio. So far, Mukesh Ambani has many factors in his favour despite the fact that Huawei technologies is miles ahead of Reliance Jio when it comes to pure 5G technology considerations.