In what signals the death knell of Huawei in India, Reliance Industries Limited Chairman Mukesh Ambani during the 43rd AGM, announced that Jio has developed homegrown 5G solution from scratch and will be ready for field deployment by next year.
It seems that Jio has beaten its competitors and will be the first one to roll out 5G network in India as RIL Chairman announced that Jio has been working on developing a homegrown 5G telecom solution.
“Jio has designed and developed a complete 5G solution from scratch. It will be ready for trials as soon as 5G spectrum is available and can be ready for field deployment next year,” said Ambani during the first ever virtual AGM of RIL.
The company is developing a 5G mobile network solution from the ground up, which will effectively eliminate the need for Jio to depend on third-party vendors like Huawei. The company also plans to export the home-grown 5G solution globally. It is believed that the investment by technology giant Qualcomm will give the company a much needed push for a new 5G mobile network solution.
Ambani’s announcement comes days after US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo praised Jio. He said, “Clean carriers like Jio in India, Telstra in Australia, SK and KT in South Korea, NTT in Japan, and others have also prohibited the use of Huawei equipment in their networks.”
Mr Ambani also plans to upgrade the 2G users at a much faster pace. He said, “As India is standing at the doorsteps of the 5G era, we should accelerate the migration of 350 million Indians, who currently use a 2G feature phone, to an affordable smart phone.”
Jio also announced that it will be partnering with Google to develop affordable 5G smartphone which will have custom Android based operating system with the platform being made in India. Till date, JioPhone remains the most affordable 4G phone in the world.
In the next three years, Jio plans to connect half a billion customers as Mr Ambani claimed, “We have fully kickstarted five accelerators of growth of digital connectivity: Mobile broadband, JioFiber, Jio”s enterprise broadband, broadband for SMEs, and Jio”s Narrowband Internet-of-Things (NBIoT).”
Earlier, when the 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.” To this, Donald Trump said, “Oh that’s good. Put a bid in.”
Ever since its launch, Jio has been at the forefront of telecom revolution in India. Jio has emerged as a disruptor in the telecom sector and thanks to the company, India has the cheapest mobile data in the world.
On one hand where the world is rejecting and sidelining Huawei — UK, France, US due to security concerns – India is all set to have its own 5G network.