The Chronicles of 5G deployment in India : News and Updates

[Gautam]

Rumour mill says Reliance Jio has US govt.'s backing to replace Huawei in 5G space. Not sure what to make of such assessments.

Can Jio grow to global dominance like Chinese companies did?

US lavishes praise on Reliance Jio

www.techradar.com

US continues to back Jio on 5G tech

Major plan to unseat Huawei

www.techradar.com

https://www.orfonline.org/expert-speak/trump-and-the-art-of-5g-war/

Big Opportunity For Reliance Jio As Huawei, ZTE May Be Booted From 5G Trials

Huawei and ZTE will be kept out of India’s plans to roll out its 5G network. The ouster of Chinese majors could act as a big push for Reliance Jio

inc42.com

 

[Gautam]

Airtel to solve DoT's Chinese gear vendor dilemma for 5G field trials: Here's how

Bharti Airtel is preparing to submit fresh applications for 5G trials with European vendors Nokia and Ericsson for circles or cities where it previously filed to partner with Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE.

By Danish Khan
ETTelecom
Updated: August 19, 2020, 09:18 IST

NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel is preparing to submit fresh applications for 5G trials with European vendors Nokia and Ericsson for circles or cities where it previously filed to partner with Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE. People familiar with the matter said that Airtel is now applying for Kolkata and Bengaluru with Finland’s Nokia and Sweden’s Ericsson, instead of ZTE and Huawei, respectively.

The development will allow the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) to wriggle out of a tricky situation and release trial 5G spectrum to telecom operators without having to decide on Chinese vendors. Reliance Jio has already filed separate applications, with Samsung and without, while Vodafone Idea is awaiting the Supreme Court verdict on the adjusted gross revenue dues (AGR), which will determine its existential future, before taking a final call.

DoT officials are in a fix in the absence of a formal stance of the government on whether to allow Chinese equipment makers for 5G trials, and thus have not been able to progress on trial spectrum allocation. So, “the plus one application will make the job easy for the DoT. They can just allow one application in that circle or city without having to take a call to keep anyone out,” a person familiar with the matter said.

Amid heightened tensions on the India-China border, Chinese investments— both existing and potential—in India have come under close scrutiny of the government. New Delhi has so far barred the Chinese gear makers from supplying equipment to state-run telecom service providers Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Ltd, and has privately said that the two will also not be allowed for 5G deployments even for private operators. But there has been no formal communication so far.

ZTE and Huawei have been the 4G vendors for Airtel in Kolkata and Bengaluru, and applications for 5G trials were submitted for seamless network integration. “However, with the latest move, Airtel is indicating which European vendors could replace Chinese vendors in these circles in the future,” the person said.

Airtel to solve DoT's Chinese gear vendor dilemma for 5G field trials: Here's how - ET Telecom

Bharti Airtel is preparing to submit fresh applications for 5G trials with European vendors Nokia and Ericsson for circles or cities where it previously filed to partner with Chinese vendors Huawei and ZTE.

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Airtel gives contract to Ribbon for packet transport network upgrade with 5G capabilities

Under the deal, Ribbon is providing its 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities.

By Danish Khan
ET Telecom
August 04, 2020, 09:44 IST

NEW DELHI: Airtel has given a contract to Ribbon Communications to upgrade its packet transport network in India. Under the deal, Ribbon is providing its 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities. The deployment is part of Airtel's network strategy to make its network future-proof and ready for a seamless transition to emerging technologies such as 5G.

Ribbon's 5G-native Neptune solution will be deployed throughout Bharti Airtel's India network, providing high capacity, low latency and real time programmability. The Neptune platform enables a powerful, efficient multi-layer next-generation network solution for a seamless evolution to future 5G services.

Ribbon has been a trusted partner since 2004, and their proven track record gives us confidence that they will successfully manage this upgrade. This compact, robust IP/MPLS-Access solution from Ribbon will both serve our current needs and make the Airtel network 5G ready," said Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel.

Ribbon's 5G network solution will be controlled, managed and automated by its cloud-native Musesystem, already deployed, which is based on SDN (Software Defined Networking) concepts for real time programmability and network planning applications. "5G will unleash a significant array of new applications and services that users around the world will benefit from. We are honored to have been selected by Bharti Airtel for this critical upgrade," said Bruce McClelland, CEO of Ribbon Communications.

Airtel gives contract to Ribbon for packet transport network upgrade with 5G capabilities - ET Telecom

Bharti Airtel: Under the deal, Ribbon is providing its 5G-Native Neptune platform to enhance its mobile backhaul transport capabilities.

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Airtel has started making some moves recently. That is good to see. They are replacing ZTE & Huawei made gear for Nokia & Ericsson. BSNL cancelled contract for 4G gear from Chinese vendors. Thought their 2G and 3G gear still has Chinese gear, it would be cheaper to switch to 4G only than to replace them with non-Chinese gear.

Vodafone-Idea might not survive the Supreme Court's AGR ruling. Even if they did, they wouldn't be thinking of 5G deployment anytime soon. They would also be aware of GoI's response to Chinese gear, I doubt they would want to mess with Delhi at this time. So this is probably the end of the road for Chinese gear makers in India, with or without GoI's official ban.

So among the telecom players Airtel is going with the Scandinavians, Voda-Idea might just die, Jio announced their own 5G tech. So the only room to play on for Samsung is with BSNL. No wonder they have been making desperate calls to BSNL as was reported recently. I wouldn't be surprised if Samsung were willing to sell 4G/5G gear for much lower prices to BSNL, if only to ensure their survival in India.

But BSNL being govt. owned will most definitely follow the GoI's "Atmanirbhar Bharat" clarion call. If anything GoI will use BSNL as a mascot of "Atmanirbhar Bharat". With Tech Mahindra and ITI planning to do trial runs on their 4G tech offered to BSNL soon, Samsung's wiggle room is getting smaller and smaller.

Tech Mahindra and ITI claims their 4G tech is upgradable to 5G and it is likely the their tech is based on O-RAN. Thus is will be significantly cheaper than whatever Samsung has to offer. Is this the end of the road for Samsung in Indian telecom too ?

They do have a few options. They could start manufacturing their telecom gear in India, this will reduce cost by a bit & they can pitch it as "Made in India". On the other hand, they can always hope Tech Mahindra's and Jio's bet on O-RAN fail & they are forced to buy gear from Samsung.

 

[Gautam]

The BharatNet/National Optical Fibre Network(NOFN) is a rarely talked about project and yet it is a crucial one. The Gigabit Passive Optical Network(GPON) used is a C-DOT designed and United Telecoms Limited (UTL) manufactured G.984 complaint network capable of max 2.4Gbits/s speeds. The network is connected to the core internet infrastructure by means of the 4G base stations of the various ISPs(Airtel, Jio et al)

The architecture is as follows:

Core network > 4G base stations > NOFN's GOPN > Optical line terminals > Network terminals > WiFi/FTTH in villages

Core Network : Submerged intercontinental cables connecting servers/data centres in various countries with each other. The servers/data centres are accessed by means of virtual switching channels. These networks are upgraded and complemented all the time. If user count remains stagnant, adding a complimentary networks will reduce server load. In India's case it was the opposite, 4G adoption led to an explosive increase in data usage within a very short period of time. This exponentially increased server loads and reduced the connectivity speeds that every individual user experienced.

4G base stations : Owned by the Internet Service Providers(ISPs), these stations are the gateway to the internet for every single user. Upgrading from 4G to 5G would require the ISPs to upgrade the hardware & software here. When the ISPs move to 5G the NOFN network will automatically switch to 5G network and improve speed accordingly. If one ISP switches to 5G quicker than the rest their base stations will likely see increased demand and the govt. would have to pay them more.

NOFN's GOPN : Plugged into the base stations, these fibres use the ISPs base stations to allow the users to access the internet. Pretty much like getting a JioFibre or Airtel Xtreme FTTH, except the govt. pays the ISPs and gives users internet access at prices so low(76% less than normal price) that it is commercially unviable for ISPs themselves to do the same.

Optical line terminals : Splitting the optical line by means of passive beam splitter and thus creating a number of Passive Optical Network(PON) terminals.

Network terminals : Sets the throughput rates for a particular locality to stabilize the internet speed across the area and prevent overload on any particular network equipment.

WiFi/FTTH : This is where an individual user get an access to network from.

And the best part the BharatNet is built under the Make in India initiative with no involvement of foreign companies. All components, fibres, terminals, splitters used are made in India. To the end users Broadband speeds are going to be not less than 100Mbits/sec. For most villages that will be more than sufficient for all uses. A move the 5G base station might not even be needed.

Implementation of the project has been patchy at best. Multiple project completion date over-runs. Multiple times the deadlines have been shifted back. This is from a Parliament report by Telecom and IT Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad on 7 Nov 2019 :

https://www.medianama.com/2019/11/223-rs-prasad-telecom/

While some states have completed 100% of the project, some others are yet to get started. It is hard to state when the project will be completed everywhere, but with the current progress rate it should take at few years to have good levels of connectivity everywhere.

COVID has taken away much of the working days of this year. With the lack of migrant labour it might get harder in many states. This is the more recent picture :

https://www.medianama.com/2020/08/223-bharatnet-modi-speech-optical-fibre/

Oh and an optical fibre to the Lakshwadeep Islands is coming up :



India's average broadband internet speed is around 40 Mbits/sec. Internet penetration stands at 54.29% of the population(~700 million internet users by the end of 2020). 75% of the users are on 4G. The number is projected to be ~1 billion users by the end of 2025. From 2019 to 2020 we added some 120+ million new internet users. With the pandemic and rise of "Work From Home" culture, we might actually hit a billion users before the projected date.

India: number of internet users 2050 | Statista

In 2023, India had over 1.2 billion internet users across the country.

www.statista.com

The mobile internet penetration is urban locales are already pretty good and broadband adoption is rising. The rural locales have greater opportunities as it is still an unsaturated market. In 2019, the number of rural internet users overtook the urban. Rural India also has far more people than Urban. Thus a BharatNet like network's utility becomes clear. It is designed to boost internet connectivity in rural India.

While in Urban India, the push will be about adopting Broadband and eventually 5G. The push for Broadband is coming in by bundling of services: TV, Internet, OTT platforms so on, all bundled onto one network by the ISP.

One of the many cause of delay of BharatNet :


'16 of 37 States aligned with DoT's infra roll out rules'

Only 16 out of the 37 States/Union Territories in India have aligned with the RoW (Right of Way) Rules, 2016, issued by the Department of Telecom, even after four years, which is jeopardising the rolling out of telecom infrastructure including the towers, laying fibre cable in those states which ultimately affects the call quality, increases network congestion and call drops.

By IANS
February 08, 2020, 16:07 IST

New Delhi: Out of the 37 States/UTs, only 16 states have broadly aligned their policy with RoW Rules 2016 and the other remaining states still need to align their policy with Row Rules 2016, industry body TAIPA (Towers and Infrastructure Providers Association) has rued.

"A robust telecom infrastructure will play a key role in seamless connectivity, which is the essence of true "Digitization". India still needs more than 1,00,000 towers to provide quality services and cater an active subscriber base of more than a billion consumers," TAIPA said.

The RoW rules, notified way back in November 2016, provide for a framework to give approvals for setting up of telecom towers and laying of fibre cables and settle disputes in a time-bound manner, as well as improve coordination between companies and the State government authorities and local bodies. It also prescribes for setting up a web-based online portal for a single window clearance mechanism to ensure timebound approvals.

Making a special mention of the Karnataka government for not aligning with the RoW rules, TAIPA said the state is not adopting RoW Rules 2016 issued by the DoT. "On the contrary, the Urban Development Department (UDD) in Karnataka, which seems to be responsible for framing the policy for installation of telecom infrastructure in the State has come out with a Policy in May 2019 which is completely misaligned with the Indian Telegraph RoW Rules 2016 of the Government of India.

Not only this, the policy as issued by the State government has gone even beyond and prescribed many restrictions for placement of telecom infrastructure and the fee that is required to be paid to the State government for permission is prescribed at Rs 1 lakh which is up to 10 times higher than that prescribed by the Central Government. Further, the provisions regarding single window clearance and standardization of RoW rules November 2016, is missing in the policy," TAIPA pointed.

'16 of 37 states aligned with DoT's infra roll out rules' - ET Telecom

DoT: Only 16 out of the 37 states/Union Territories in India have aligned with the RoW (Right of Way) Rules, 2016, issued by the Department of Telecom, even after four years, which is jeopardising the rolling out of telecom infrastructure including the towers, laying fibre cable in those states...

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

[Gautam]

By next year, India could see a few 5G field deployments: Abilash Joseph, VVDN Technologies

VVDN Technologies, an original equipment manufacturer (ODM), is constantly engaged in the expansion of its local manufacturing for 5G equipment
for the local as well as global telecom operators. Going forward, it is believed that importing finished 5G and WiFi products might be difficult and hence VVDN is paving the path for local designing and manufacturing.

AUTHOR: ANUSHA ASHWIN - AUGUST 13, 2020

Speaking with Abilash Joseph, Director, 5G & Data Center, VVDN Technologies, shares his thoughts with Voice&Data on India’s 5G dreams and how his company is well placed as the pioneering domestic telecom equipment maker to make 5G a reality for India.

Few excerpts:

Voice&Data: As the company’s name is coined VVDN – the acronym for Voice, Video, Data, Network – how does the company cater to each of these verticals through its ODM ?

Abilash Joseph: VVDN offers an end-to-end product that includes engineering, cloud, application, and manufacturing services under the ODM umbrella. Company’s offerings resonate with the name Voice, Video, Data, Network (VVDN) as it works and focusses on all the innovative technologies and solutions that converge within these 4 areas. VVDN’s 5 major business units include 5G & Data Center, IoT, Vision, Networking & Wifi, Cloud & Apps.

VVDN has dedicated best in class Audio Labs, Video Labs, Wireless (5G and Wi-Fi), and IOT labs where R&D is being done which ensures that the company is able to deliver as per the customer and market needs. Major solution offerings including 5G Telecom Equipment (5G/4G RAN), Wi-Fi Access Points, Vision-based Driver Monitoring Solutions, Security Surveillance Cameras, IoT Personal & Asset Trackers, voice-enabled Trackers, Smart Speakers are an example of few solutions designed, developed and manufactured by VVDN.

Voice&Data: From hardware engineering to software engineering, VVDN has developed an array of services and products. What is the company’s broad vision for India’s telecom sector ?

Abilash Joseph: Telecom in India, despite the stress, is making all the efforts to step up the 5G rollout plan. Definitely the need is to do some efforts towards creating a home-grown ecosystem reducing dependence on imports, locally developing India specific use cases, and bring cost-related advantages to Indian Telecom Operators.

Moving forward in that direction, VVDN has invested heavily in the 5G space wherein the focus today is on the 5G RAN with plans to extend it to 5G core in the future. The vision is to support various telecom equipment manufacturers as well as operators to provide them with the technology and designs to help them speed up their field trials with the in-house manufacturing infrastructure and design expertise.

We anticipate that next year India could see some field deployments as the entire 5G ecosystem is working together, however, there could be some delays as well owing to spectrum auction by the government. But overall we have a very positive outlook towards Telecom 5G sector in India

Voice&Data: Wireless communication devices and equipment have undergone a massive transformation in the last few years. In your experience, how have you seen these systems change for better and how will the future look like bringing a disruptive change ?

Abilash Joseph: Over the past few years, openness of RAN famously known as O-RAN has brought a considerable positive disruption in the market – a disruption that will help RAN innovations get to market sooner. The industry by large has embraced O-RAN with all the complications attached to it.

Open-Radio Access Network (O-RAN) will deliver open fronthaul interfaces, in which multi-vendor DU-RRU interoperability can be realized along with high throughput and very low latency. With the introduction of O-RAN technology, the market has considerably open to various players.

Telecom operators now have a choice from not just buying equipment from the legacy players but from others too which has definitely pushed the competition. VVDN has developed its very first O-RAN Fronthaul IP in the 7-2x split option which will help in interface simplicity, transport bandwidth scalability, interoperability, lower RU complexity, and function symmetry.

Open architecture and interfaces will be required to create technological advancements that can help Telecom Operators to cater to the increased demand in data consumption. The digital transformation will load the networks and to handle it, the industry needs to put efforts to transform the networks.

5G transformation is the best example to see how future requirements of humans and machines will be handled through open architecture, network element virtualization, and defining of multiple logical networks on top of the same physical infrastructure. High Speed and Low latency are the advantages that 5G will bring for the users and will accelerate the cloud business activities.

Voice&Data: VVDN has pioneered into manufacturing of equipment for 5G. How is the company contributing to India’s pathway to 5G adoption and deployment ?

Abilash Joseph: VVDN’s investment in the 5G space is focussed on R&D, design, development, IPR creation, and manufacturing. Today, VVDN has pioneered in 5G Network infrastructure solutions and IPs which are instrumental in developing custom solutions around CU/DU, Radio Units, Small Cell, Fronthaul IP, eCPRI to CPRI Gateway, Layer Split Hub, Layer 1 Acceleration Card.

VVDN’s initiatives are aimed towards keeping India in the 5G race by helping telcos and equipment manufacturer to accelerate time to market. VVDN plans to mass-produce the 5G equipment at its own manufacturing facilities including Macro RU, SmallCell, DU & Fronthaul gateway.

Voice&Data: How is the company supporting telecom operators in the functioning of the networks and especially at times like this COVID-19 Lockdown that has increased stress on networks ?

Abilash Joseph: The current COVID situation has definitely created a lot of stress all over and the business resilience is being tried like never before. Such times call for robust telecom infrastructure.

VVDN is the ODM partner for a lot of Telecom Network Equipment Infrastructure Providers and is continuously supporting them by completing the ongoing design and development of various projects and releases. By following strict guidelines outlined by the local authorities, the dedication of work from home by employees is helping execute the business at hand.

We are proud to share that business from the design services side continues at full strength with minimal impact to our current ongoing activities with our current customers.

As from the manufacturing side, the production capabilities are functioning at approximately full capacity. The company’s plan always included the safety of employees and clearance from respective authorities. In summary, VVDN started working with full operational capabilities by June onwards, with the consideration of certain “work from home”.

VVDN has shipped more than 100,000 Wi-Fi Access Points from its manufacturing facilities to multiple telecom service providers in India during the COVID which has not only ensured continuity in their services but also has helped in proving a self-reliant ecosystem from VVDN to deliver a complete “Make in India” strategy.

Voice&Data: VVDN has expertise in cloud technologies, how is this technology helping Indian communication service providers? How can these companies leverage cloud to handle critical operations ?

Abilash Joseph: The telecom industry is undergoing dramatic changes and enormous challenges with the ever-growing increase in data consumption and demand. Telcos are under stress to reduce costs and increase agility— we believe the cloud can play an important role in achieving these objectives.

Today VVDN supports organizations by deploying tailored cloud strategy meeting their business objectives. The present scenario reflects to cloud management of IoT end-user devices but going ahead the next generation of networks will demand a virtualized cloud environment.

With 5G, network functions virtualization is extending to Radio Access Networks from Core Network. VVDN will extend its cloud services and expertise helping operators to transform their networks as per the future technological requirements.

Voice&Data: Could you outline the company’s future roadmap (2020-2022) ?

Abilash Joseph: VVDN’s vision is to continue moving ahead in future with emerging new wave technologies – including 5G, AI/ML, Telecom Grade Wi-Fi Access Points, 5G Network & Wi-Fi Cloud Development, as we aim to be the premier ODM out of India focusing on DESIGN and MAKE in INDIA. In this respect, VVDN will be focussing on capturing the new opportunities and further strengthening our position in the industry by being an important and integral part of the ecosystem.

Given the COVID situation, VVDN is working relentlessly to adopt the new normal of the world and plans to weather the challenge and lie ahead by adopting and adapting the new approach and strategies towards business execution. One thing that would remain constant and consistent is that for VVDN its customers will always remain the focal point of its vision.

By next year, India could see a few 5G field deployments: Abilash Joseph, VVDN Technologies

VVDN has invested heavily in the 5G space wherein the focus today is on the 5G RAN with plans to extend it to 5G core in the future.

www.voicendata.com

 

[Gautam]

The British U-turn on Huawei: Key Takeaways for India

By Tom Milford
LAST UPDATED: AUGUST 17, 2020, 5:30 PM IST

FILE PHOTO: The Huawei logo is pictured at the IFA consumer tech fair in Berlin, Germany. (Reuters)

It is unclear how much longer New Delhi can delay a decision on Huawei’s role in India’s 5G network. Pressure from both Washington and Beijing has left India in an uncomfortable position whereby a decision will inevitably provoke fury from at least one global superpower, and as such has led New Delhi to kick the can down the road. But uncertainty is immensely disruptive to business. This is especially so in the telecoms sector for whom long-term investment cycles are currently on hold, delaying the roll out of 5G and the subsequent economic benefits India is forecasted to reap. It is, therefore, a decision that Modi will have to face head-on sooner or later. As he does so, he would be wise to draw upon lessons from the UK’s policy shift.

At its heart, the UK government’s decision was based on the fact that the sweeping US sanctions which ban Huawei from using software and technology that originated in the US would be ‘highly likely’ to disrupt Huawei’s basic ability to supply operators. The latest bout of US sanctions amount to a declaration of war on Huawei’s existence in the international market, with the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) assessment anticipating a time-span of decades for Huawei to completely re-design and re-build their equipment independent of US technology – a delay exacerbated by the fact China’s own semiconductor industry lags behind the West.

Much as it has done in the UK, the move by the Trump administration forces the hand of Indian policymakers. Whilst much publicised security fears had already cast doubt over the role of Huawei in India’s future 5G network, these recent sanctions leave India with little room to deviate from the Trump administration’s move to decouple from China in this strategically important sector. This US pressure is unlikely to ease under a Biden Presidency. In an increasingly polarised political climate, getting ‘tough’ on China is one of the few issues that receives bipartisan support from Democrats and Republicans, and if the sanctions imposed on 15 May fail to have their desired effect it is highly likely that they would be followed-up by further measures. In short, it is difficult to see how India can partner with a company that the US is determined to destroy.

If India is to exclude Huawei from its 5G network, it will do so from a strategically stronger position than the UK. Boris Johnson has been unable to proceed with an immediate and outright ban and has instead been forced to adopt a gradual phase-out approach for Huawei technology because of a lack of vendor diversity within the telecoms sector. Despite the UK’s NCSC acknowledging that the risk is ‘sufficiently high… to recommend that Huawei’s post-FDRA equipment is not used in the UK at all’ it stated that given the lack of alternatives ‘excluding Huawei from fixed networks will likely pose a greater resilience and security risk than their inclusion’, hence the transition period. Other than Huawei, only Nokia is able to supply national fibre access networks to the UK, and it is this lack of diversity amongst 5G vendors which increases the likelihood that single points of failure would compromise vast swathes of the UK network. India’s more diverse 5G ecosystem means that it is in a position to exclude Huawei completely: Ericson, Nokia and Samsung are all potential alternatives, thus mitigating the risk of an equipment-enabled cyber-attack. Moreover in a few years, Reliance Jio – spurred on by investment from Silicon Valley – is predicted to be in a position to make its 5G infrastructure widely available.

Yet banning Huawei does not guarantee a secure 5G network, not least because China is not thereby removed from the complex global supply chains. Chinese companies play an extensive role in making 5G kit even when the primary vendor is not Chinese, for instance the prospective vendors Nokia and Ericsson both have factories in China, and if it wanted to China could infiltrate any vendors’ 5G supply chain. Plus, regardless of whether a hostile state has component parts in the communication system it can still launch cyber-attacks, and so removing Chinese technology cannot safeguard India from Chinese cyber threats: Russia does not provide any components to telecommunications networks in the UK yet it remains one of our foremost cyber adversaries. Thus, any decision to exclude Huawei must be accompanied by broader risk-management strategies that recognise that whilst China is prolific in its cyber-attacks, it is just one of many hostile forces that could compromise the integrity of the 5G network. Indeed, poor network designs that are vulnerable to attack from any hostile actors are a far more pressing concern for Indian security officials than state-sanctioned backdoors.

In this regard, the much awaited Cyber Security Policy 2020 will be critical to strengthening the resilience of India’s future 5G network. It should recognise that whilst it is impossible to guarantee the complete security of 5G networks, carefully coordinated risk-management measures can significantly mitigate the threat from hostile actors. Network segmentation, rigorous testing of equipment such as that performed by the UK’s Huawei Cyber Security Evaluation Centre (HCSEC), and strict supervision of vendors’ access to network are all safeguards that can be implemented to strengthen the integrity of the 5G network. More broadly India should look to the UK and recognise the value of close intelligence sharing and collaboration, with the UK in a stronger position to confront China’s sophisticated cyber-attacks in partnership with its 5 Eyes allies.

In the longer-term India will have an important role to play in tackling the oligopolist 5G market which has severely reduced the commercial incentives for vendors to improve their services, and, as discussed, has created significant security vulnerabilities. As Boris Johnson alluded to, the West is in this predicament because of a failure to produce a safe alternative to Huawei in the telecoms market and India has a vested interest in supporting the UK’s calls for a collective effort amongst D-10 partners for an industrial strategy that can diversify the international telecoms market. The death of countless telecoms companies – from Nortel to Marconi – is testament to the difficulty of operating in this high volume, low margins market where there is little room for error. To succeed will require liberal democratic states to be more sharing with their technology, more willing to collaborate across borders, and more prepared to invest in strategically important areas. In this regard both India and the UK have opportunities to seize, particularly in the university sector. Short of D-10 collaboration, India may find that a sovereign capability in this technology area is the only way forward.

Ultimately, whilst Modi will have to weigh up the merits of Huawei’s involvement against security criteria, he will struggle to divorce his final decision from geopolitical, economic and ideological factors. A ban on Huawei would be interpreted as a pushback against China’s irresponsible behaviour in the region but can be expected to escalate further India-China tensions. The UK currently faces being frozen out of future Chinese investment as a direct result of its decision, but with India accounting for a much larger percentage of China’s trade, and with India’s enormous trade deficit with China, such threats are unlikely to materialise if India were to block Huawei. Then there are ideological concerns about Chinese technology companies being at the forefront of the 4th Industrial Revolution and the prestige that this would confer on an authoritarian regime that commits gross human rights abuses. As with the UK, it is this symbolic importance of the decision which will be of greatest consequence.

Disclaimer: The author is a Research Intern at ORF

The British U-turn on Huawei: Key Takeaways for India - News18

Pressure from both Washington and Beijing has left India in an uncomfortable position whereby a decision will inevitably provoke fury from at least one global superpower.

www.news18.com

 

[Gautam]

Tech Mahindra inks 5G use case partnership with Telefonica Deutschland

German telecoms company Telefonica Deutschland on Wednesday said it has selected enterprise services provider Tech Mahindra for its network and services operations, in addition to further developing 5G, artificial intelligence, and machine learning use cases.

By ET Telecom
August 19, 2020, 13:04 IST

NEW DELHI German telecoms company Telefonica Deutschland on Wednesday said it has selected enterprise services provider Tech Mahindra for its network and services operations, in addition to further developing 5G, artificial intelligence, and machine learning use cases.

"We are pleased to announce this partnership with Tech Mahindra. We are supported by a globally experienced service provider to consistently drive forward the development of our network and services operations, thus leading to further enhancement of 5G, artificial intelligence and data analysis use cases,” said Mallik Rao, Chief Technology & Information Officer of Telefonica Deutschland.

"This strategic partnership strengthens our long-standing relationship with Telefonica, in which we support the company in realizing its vision of becoming the 'Mobile Customer and Digital Champion' by 2022,” said Vikram Nair, President, Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA) of Tech Mahindra.

“As part of our TechMNxt charter, Tech Mahindra is strongly committed to 5G, the network of the future, and focuses on technology-driven innovation for digital transformation. We look forward to working together to drive innovation and deliver real value and quality to our customers,” Nair added.

Tech Mahindra inks 5G use case partnership with Telefonica Deutschland - ET Telecom

German telecoms company Telefonica Deutschland on Wednesday said it has selected enterprise services provider Tech Mahindra for its network and services operations, in addition to further developing 5G, artificial intelligence, and machine learning use cases.

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

One deal after another. Surely Tech Mahindra have something of value to offer.

Tech Mahindra Announces Multi-Year Agreement to Accelerate AT&T�s Technology Transformation

Tech Mahindra Ltd. expansion of its strategic collaboration with AT&T to accelerate AT&T IT network application.

www.teleinfotoday.com

 

[Gautam]

Bharti Airtel gets ready to take on Reliance Jio in 5G vRAN space

Tech to be tested once spectrum is available

By Surajeet Das Gupta | New Delhi Last Updated at August 21, 2020 06:10 IST


Bharti Airtel is set to take on Reliance Jio in its quest to build its own 5G virtualised radio access open network (vRAN) in India.

The Sunil Mittal-run company, which is working with the United States-based Altiostar, plans to test the latter’s open RAN software architecture once trial spectrum is made available by the government to the company. Talks are also on between Bharti Airtel and Tech Mahindra, one of the shareholders in Altiostar, to play the role of a systems integrator in harmonising software and hardware in the network bought from different vendors for both the.........

Bharti Airtel gets ready to take on Reliance Jio in 5G vRAN space

Tech to be tested once spectrum is available

www.business-standard.com

Unfortunately the article is behind a paywall. I even tried paying, but they wouldn't accept my card for some reason. Poor payments interface causes loss of customer.

So Airtel is finally fully stepping in on the O-RAN initiative. That's good to see as without it they would bleed a lot of cash in the long run competing with a Jio 5G network running on O-RAN. v-RAN, C-RAN et al are all variants of the O-RAN.

Curious how Tech Mahindra is involved everywhere. One minute they are setting up a O-RAN 4G(upgradable to 5G) pilot network to do a test run for BSNL, next minute they are selling RAN software stack to AT&T, then they are making 5G use cases with Telefonica in Germany, then they are tying up with Rakuten and providing them with the whole 5G software stack to launch their 5G network in Japan. They also own a bit of the Altiostar which is providing hardware to some US telecom firms, Rakuten and now Airtel. They are running with the hares and hunting with the hounds all at the same time, that too globally. It is incredible how they can do that.

Altiostar and Mavenir were touted to be the vendors Jio might approach to buy radio units. Altiostar is providing stuff to their rivals now, so they won't probably get a deal from Jio. There is Mavenir, but they don't make anything. They just design it and hand over manufacturing work to other vendors.

Jio could do the same. Design hardware using their Rancore and Radisys arms and hand over manufacturing to domestic companies like VVDN. VVDN is supplying radios to Rakuten, so there is that. Rakuten and Jio have a weird relationship. They will either collaborate or compete in foreign markets as their technological foundations are essentially the same. GoI owned ITI corp. has radio & other equipment making capability, but they have partnered with Tech Mahindra to enable BSNL's 4G/5G networks.

So what options does Jio have ? They could partner with these companies anyway and go with it, but then they would have to tolerate their vendors providing tech and enabling their competitors. They could also go with other Indian companies with serious capabilities that haven't partnered with anyone yet.

Like Saankhya Labs. This Indian fabless semiconductor firm already offers a suite of communications equipment like SDRs, Satcoms etc. to the Indian military, ISRO, Railways, BEL and so on. They design their own chips and get them manufactured by Samsung or TSMC. Given our lack of modern digital fabs this is the best we can do right now.

Saankhya Labs is developing an ORAN 7.2x compliant multiband 5G Remote Radio Unit (RRU). The radio unit will be available by Q1 2021. This is probably a small cell unit. Micro cells and macro cell units will come soon after this.

There are others too. Will write about them later.

Anyway, assuming Jio and Airtel goes full O-RAN this could have global impact. O-RAN is cheaper than the proprietary hardware/software from traditional vendors. This is probably why Jio sees a market in being an equipment supplier for other telecom companies abroad. With Airtel going the O-RAN way this will be a lot harder. Airtel is present in many countries directly and the tech they use in India will eventually find its way to those markets sooner or later. A Jio vs Airtel telecom pricing battle on foreign soil with O-RAN tech will shrink markets for traditional vendors. If Rakuten joins in, it will become a three way shoot out with the traditional vendors caught in the cross fire.

Interesting times ahead.

 

[Gautam]

This Jio has no counter to. If it works It will propel Airtel to global markets in ways previously not possible. Not sure what the UK govt. role in all this is about.


Bharti Enterprises asks ISRO for help developing OneWeb user terminals

by Caleb Henry
August 20, 2020

Sunil Mittal, chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said the company would like ISRO's help "to develop user terminals which cater to the needs of Indian requirements.” Credit: ISRO webcast.

WASHINGTON — Indian telecommunications giant Bharti Enterprises is asking India’s space agency to help develop user terminals for OneWeb and to collaborate on providing broadband across the country.

Sunil Mittal, the billionaire chairman of Bharti Enterprises, said during an Aug. 20 webinar hosted by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) that OneWeb should start providing broadband early in 2022 from a constellation of low-Earth-orbit satellites, and that plans are underway to build two or three gateway stations in India for domestic services. “OneWeb is going to be the world’s first LEO satellite constellation flying about 648 satellites at 1,200 kilometers, covering every inch of the globe,” Mittal said.

Bharti Enterprises and the British government are buying OneWeb, pledging in July to each invest $500 million to revive the bankrupt venture. However, neither Bharti nor the British government previously indicated that the constellation would have the same number of satellites OneWeb planned before entering Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in March.

OneWeb has 74 satellites in orbit, and will need many more launches plus the rollout of several ground stations before it can provide global service. Prior to filing for bankruptcy, OneWeb was targeting global service in 2021.

Mittal didn’t say when launches would resume, but said the plan is for OneWeb to “start to deliver these services in the early part of ‘22 once the constellation is going to be up.”

Test services will start in late 2021 once OneWeb’s coverage extends over arctic regions and northern European countries, Mittal said. With that coverage, “we will have started to test a lot of ground and user terminals,” Mittal said. “It is here we would like to see ISRO’s hand and support in work to develop user terminals which cater to the needs of Indian requirements.”

The nonexistence of affordable user terminals for high-speed consumer broadband from LEO satellites is a significant concern for OneWeb and the satellite industry. Current user terminals that can work with LEO broadband satellites are either based on flat, phased-array antennas or mechanical tracking antennas with two dishes — both expensive approaches.

Antenna challenges notwithstanding, Mittal said Bharti Enterprises has “already earmarked a lot of areas in India where the benefits of this LEO constellation broadband connectivity will be made available”. “We will also seek to build a very strong cooperation agreement with ISRO to see the combination of a GEO-LEO constellation for Indian territory is put to use where we can combine the strength and capacity requirements of the nation,” he added.

ISRO provides satellite broadband across India through its fleet of domestically built GSAT geostationary satellites. The agency operates 15 geostationary communications satellites, according to the ISRO website, which provide broadband and broadcast services.

Bharti Enterprises asks ISRO for help developing OneWeb user terminals

Indian telecommunications giant Bharti Enterprises is asking India’s space agency to help develop user terminals for OneWeb and to collaborate on providing broadband across the country.

spacenews.com

 

[Gautam]

Dug up an interesting story. Its a long read though :

In 2014, IIT-Hydrabad incubated start up WiSig Networks and Indian multinational telecom equipment provider Tejas Networks announced development of a C-RAN based 5G Network

2014 article:

IITH working hard to make 5G dream come true

Telangana News:IITH working hard to make 5G dream come true

www.thehindu.com

2015 article: Some progress made

Tejas Networks, IIT-H develop 5G Cloud Radio Access Network for India

‘Make-In-India’ radio cloud tech to reduce call-drops.

By Chethan Kumar
TNN
Updated: September 23, 2015, 12:21 IST

BENGALURU: In an example of industry-academia collaboration and a futuristic, time-based research, Bengaluru-based Tejas Networks is working with Indian Institute of Technology-Hyderabad (IIT-H), on a novel 5G Cloud Radio Access Network (CRAN), keeping in mind India’s needs. In the works for two years, the first field demonstration of the technology, project lead Dr Kiran Kuchi of IIT-H, said: “...Will be scheduled in the next two months or so.”

“...This will be the first such technology in India. Even outside, only Germany had tried demonstrating CRAN, but I think we’ve taken it way beyond that.” This “Make-in-India” technology will help India in the long run and will help articulate our needs from the 5G standards.

“...India is one of the few countries which has voting rights in the global 5G standardisation framework and all the learning from this project will help us in the future,” Sanjay Nayak, CEO of Tejas Networks, which has already embarked on many Make-in-India projects including a few in the defence sector said.

Explaining further, Kuchi, who is leading the project said that the 5G CRAN technology which will enable centralisation of radio signals which will enable greater efficiency by reducing interference from other cellular devices.

5G CRAN technology developmental board. (TOI photo by Chethan Kumar)

“In existing technology the base stations are not only bulky and expensive but are prone to a lot of interference as cellular processing is at the bottom while the antenna and radio are at the top. With our technology we will draw all of them to a radio cloud and then transmit the same, which will reduce interference,” Kuchi explained.

Tejas Networks Chief Technology Officer (CTO) Dr Kumar Sivarajan said: “We’ve provided them with the hardware (base station, radio et al) without which the project could not go forward. And what we are together trying to achieve will be of immense value not only for the industry but also for the customer.”

How it works

The 5G CRAN will have a central server (cloud) which is easy to handle connected to remote radio headends (RRHs) which can be fitted at a low cost in any place. “The RRHs will take the signals to the server from where it will be transmitted,” Kuchi said. “The technology although sounds similar to the traditional IT cloud service, is not so as it involves complicated radio signals,” Kuchi said.

Kumar added that the team at IIT-H is coming up with a series of complicated algorithms to achieve this and that “the effort is commendable as there is no reference to such technology and things are being done from scratch". Kuchi added that the technology has a potential of connecting hundreds of radios and base stations, we are, as part of the project looking at connecting 19, which we believe is good number to demonstrate efficiency.

Reduction of call-drops

Kuchi said that with a shortage of spectrum service providers are forced to re-use spectrum which is one of the main reasons for call-drops. “Our technology, by way of using cloud, will cleanse the system while reusing the spectrum thereby reducing call-drops,” he said.

Kiran also said that this technology will ease the process of establishing communication networks in remote areas as it will cost let. It will also allow speedy access to day with little interruption accessing data very fast without much interruption.

Internet of things

World-over the conversation on 5G has largely been on how it will support the Internet of Things (IoT), and this technology will also do the same. It will offer convergence of cellular, IoT, machine-to-machine transfer of information, WiFi everything on a single platform, the radio cloud.

Tejas Networks, IIT-H develop 5G Cloud Radio Access Network for India - ET Telecom

‘Make-In-India’ radio cloud tech to reduce call-drops.

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

2017: They demonstrated Narrow Band(NB) IoT modem at the annual Mobile World Congress in 2017 and seem to have attracted some attention.

They went on to put out their first global patent in 2017 to 3GPP. 100 other patents were filed in US and India by then.

IIT scientists present India's first 5G patent before global body | India News - Times of India

India News: With India gearing up for the commercial roll out of 5G by 2020, scientists at IIT Hyderabad and Centre of Excellence in Wireless have tabled the coun

timesofindia.indiatimes.com

Then they demonstrated NB IoT modem the 2017 CEATEC trade show in Japan. First photo shows Prof. Kotaro Kataoka and Prof. Antony Franklin from IIT Hyderabad.

2018:

GoI sanctioned what was described as the worlds largest 5G test bed.

Bright minds join hands for 5G test project

Worlds largest test-bed for 5G will be used to procure gears and hire top-notch researchers to usher in the next game-changer in the telecom industry

economictimes.indiatimes.com

They participated in Mobile World Congress in 2018

Prof. Kiran Kuchi, the man behind WiSig Networks, represented India and headed the TSDSI delegation to the 5G IA meeting:

TSDSI and the 5G IA signed a Memorandum of Understanding to foster collaboration on Research, Standards, Regulations and Policies

Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) and the 5G Infrastructure Association (5G IA) signed a Memorandum of Understanding to foster collaboration on Research, Standards, Regulations and Policies over the next 3 years Brussels, May 2nd, 2018 - Telecommunications...

5g-ppp.eu

And finally in 2018 they demonstrated Massive MIMO 5G network on the test bed that was sanctioned. For a start up just a few years old this is an amazing pace of progress.

Home-grown WiSig Networks prepares to join exclusive 5G club

By ET Bureau
Last Updated: May 14, 2018, 11:51 PM IST

Synopsis​

The Chinese firms Huwavei and ZTE joined with 4G technology. An Indian company is now preparing to join this exclusive group with 5G technology.​

For two generations after the cellular wireless revolution began, technology was controlled by European and US companies — Ericsson, Alcatel, Nokia, and the US firm Lucent. They defined and built the technology foundations, licensed it to whoever they saw fit, and earned handsome royalties from around the world. It was a very good game to play. The Korean company Samsung entered the fray with 3G wireless. The Chinese firms Huwavei and ZTE joined with 4G technology. An Indian company is now preparing to join this exclusive group with 5G technology.

WiSig Networks was set up in 2015 inside Indian Institute of Technology in Hyderabad to develop technologies for 5G wireless. Kiran Kuchi, professor of electrical engineering at IIT Hyderabad, had been working for seven years on the technology for 5G. It is a tough job to break into the exclusive wireless club, but WiSig struck gold recently.

A Dallas-based company gave a contract worth $1 million to WiSig for developing base station software. “There is no way companies can hire people in large numbers in the West to do R&D,” says Kuchi.

A good engineer with five years of experience can command $250,000 a year as salary, and product development in foundational areas would need as many as 100 people.

This contract breathed new life into the company. A year ago, WiSig had an investment of `1 crore and employed five people. It now employs 40 people, the core of whom came from IIT Hyderabad. Three years ago, it tested on IIT Hyderabad campus a key 5G technology called massive MIMO (Multiple Input, Multiple Output). This week, WiSig will demonstrate it with 48 antennas at the 5G conference in Mumbai. Transmission using 48 antennas at the same time has not been demonstrated in the world so far.

The cloud radio that WiSig developed, which enables processing signals from all antennas together, was a fundamental advance for the company. “Cloud radio is one of the innovations of 5G,” says Kumar Sivarajan, chief technology officer of Tejas Networks. “In cloud radio WiSig was ahead of others.”

WiSig had got financial support from government programmes, especially the Telecom Ministry and the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MEITY). It has one competitor less from last week, as ZTE has shut down after US sanctions. With substantial intellectual property in terms of patents, WiSig is in a position to take the place of ZTE and influence the development of 5G technology.

Home-grown WiSig Networks prepares to join exclusive 5G club

The Chinese firms Huwavei and ZTE joined with 4G technology. An Indian company is now preparing to join this exclusive group with 5G technology.

economictimes.indiatimes.com

Now it was time to pitch it to the politicians. WiSig Networks demonstrated their 5G Massive MIMO at the 2018 5G India Conference in Mumbai. It was a large demonstration too with up to 48 layers MIMO on a 48Tx/48Rx configuration. Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha, DoT Secretary Aruna Sundararajan and several high-profile guests were present.

2019:

They signed a few agreements:

https://www.design-reuse.com/news/46723/wisig-networks-ceva-cellular-iot.html

WiSig Networks' 5G New Radio (NR) base station is 3GPP Release 15 compliant and uses FPGA with Intel's x86 IP. The base station supports both sub-6 GHz and mmWave bands. The IP supports functional split 7.2x, which means the radio unit that Saankhya Labs were developing will easily work with this network.

In 2019, they said a major Indian telecom operator had called them in to conduct Massive MIMO trials at the operator's personal lab. The operator was not named, there was no news about this, the outcome of the trials wasn't known.

All they did was post this photo. Then all news about WiSig Networks died down. No more media articles, no further updates on their website. Everything was going so well, what happened ? Got acquired by someone ? But mergers and acquisition news are all over the place in India. Why wouldn't anything be in the media ? Then I squinted real hard at the photo above, trying to look for a clue. The top right of the photo shows a poster on the wall with the heading : "Jio's 4G Connected Car".

So.... Jio ate them up ? Like Rancore and Radisys ? Was there a Non-Disclosure Agreement(NDA) signed ?

Is this what Ambani meant by fully in-house 5G ? They don't have enough patents to make that "fully in-house" claim. But WiSig Network does have a lot of patents. Since Tejas Networks worked with WiSig in their early days their backhaul products are complaint with WiSig's Massive MIMO architecture. I do hope Jio pics Saankhya Labs for radios. Also please ditch the Intel's x86 ISA, go with Signalchip or Saankhya's proprietary ISA or the open source RISC-V ISA.

 

[Ashwin]

This is some uncharacteristic levels of foresight shown by the GoI. Never thought I would see strategic thinking on anything from GoI.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1296330888549216257

 

[Gautam]

https://twitter.com/x/status/1296330888549216257

Don't understand the point of this argument. The article says we will be able to provide an alternative to China to the ASEAN nations in accessing the Internet. How does having/not having domestic cable manufacturing/laying capabilities effect that ?

We already have substantial private and public ownership of submarine cables landing in India.

India - Submarine Networks

Currently, there are 15 subsea cables (17 if Seacom and MENA are considered seperate cables) landing in 15 cable landing stations in 5 cities across India, in M

www.submarinenetworks.com

Companies are expanding on that to boost internet speeds:

Mukesh Ambani-owned Jio to deploy new submarine cable systems - ET Telecom

Reliance Jio: The oil-to-retail conglomerate Reliance Industries Limited’s (RIL) telecom arm Jio will be deploying two submarine cable systems connecting Singapore and Europe, taking high-bandwidth connectivity from America’s western and eastern coasts allowing higher data speed to Indian...

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

Infact, TATA Communications owns a wide range of cables in India and across the world for telecoms, internet, stock exchanges etc. They don't seem to be affected by lack of manufacturing/laying capability. Most of their cable work is done by Japan's NEC, while they do maintenance and upkeep work.

Map | Tata Communications

www.tatacommunications.com

They point of that article was to say that the GoI is planning to provide the ASEAN with an alternative. The submarine cable to Andaman will always have a lot of un-used capacity as there aren't a lot of users on that island to use up the whole network. Most of the network will remain free at anytime.

Thus the ASEAN nations can use that cable to access the internet. Their servers will connect to the servers in Chennai which in turn is connected to the world. Currently most of the internet in ASEAN is supported by Chinese owned cables. The CCP can and will use this as a bargaining chip against the ASEAN. In that context I think what GoI is offering is a very good deal.

Besides the two tweets feel more like rants than actual arguments.

 

[_Anonymous_]

All they did was post this photo. Then all news about WiSig Networks died down. No more media articles, no further updates on their website. Everything was going so well, what happened ? Got acquired by someone ? But mergers and acquisition news are all over the place in India. Why wouldn't anything be in the media ? Then I squinted real hard at the photo above, trying to look for a clue. The top right of the photo shows a poster on the wall with the heading : "Jio's 4G Connected Car".

So.... Jio ate them up ? Like Rancore and Radisys ? Was there a Non-Disclosure Agreement(NDA) signed ?

Is this what Ambani meant by fully in-house 5G ? They don't have enough patents to make that "fully in-house" claim. But WiSig Network does have a lot of patents. Since Tejas Networks worked with WiSig in their early days their backhaul products are complaint with WiSig's Massive MIMO architecture. I do hope Jio pics Saankhya Labs for radios. Also please ditch the Intel's x86 ISA, go with Signalchip or Saankhya's proprietary ISA or the open source RISC-V ISA.

So what's the final conclusion? Has Jio taken over / bought out WiSg? If so, how's it possible? If yes, what were Jio's acquisitions of Rancore & Radisys all about? Why would they need WiSg then? For, if WiSg was acquired by Jio it means the GoI was indirectly or directly subsidising Jio?

 

[Gautam]

So what's the final conclusion? Has Jio taken over / bought out WiSg?

Most likely yes. We don't have any direct evidence though. Startups in their early stages tend to be very vocal and active on social media. They have to be to attract potential users & investors. They haven't posted an update for over an year. That's very unusual behavior for a start up, they were as active on SM and their website as other start ups before 2019. So why the sudden drop out ? They have clearly produced enough IP to gather interest from would be investors. At this time of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" a start up with such tech should be screaming on top of their lungs. An acquisition by Jio with a built-in non-disclosure agreement is the only thing that fits in.

If so, how's it possible?

Why would it not be possible ? Start up acquisitions are hardly a break from the norm.

For, if WiSg was acquired by Jio it means the GoI was indirectly or directly subsidising Jio?

Oh I see the contention. But the GoI never owned any part of WiSig & never invested any money in it. What GoI did was investing money in the IITs to conduct tests and set up industry standards. There was a big debate raging a few years back about 5G standards which have abated largely due to this. It was in GoI's direct interest to find out which frequency bands they can sell and to have a demonstration to prove a 5G network can be set up on those bands. Though there might still be problems ahead as ISRO uses some parts of the 5G spectrum.

The WiSig's founders proved the technological viability of 5G in India. Then they decided to take a commercial turn. They wanted to become a network architecture designer. You could argue that GoI's financial support directly and indirectly enabled them to get to the stage of technical capability where they could do a commercial launch, as such launching a company is essentially taking Govt.'s money to launch a for-profit private venture. That is true.

Similar statements can be made about all new tech adoptions in India and abroad. Remember how the banks that allowed UPI to do testing on their systems were the first beneficiary of the service. The early adopters gained disproportionately more money than the late adopters. 5G is no exception.

No system is perfect. When you can make your own tech some of your companies gain disproportionately, when you can't make your own tech foreign companies gain disproportionately. Given a choice, I would choose the less unfavorable of the two options.

If yes, what were Jio's acquisitions of Rancore & Radisys all about? Why would they need WiSg then?

They all serve a different purpose & fit in just fine:

Rancore is the network manager. They decide where to set up the base stations & towers, which radio cells to use, how to provide uninterrupted power to the towers and stations. They run & maintain the network. Their work has to do with physical infrastructure. The 4G network's infra is very different from 2G/3G networks. Rancore designed, planned & executed Jio's whole nationwide 4G network at record speed, although it has struggled a lot more with the JioFibre deployment. Be that as it may, the experience from building and running such a massive network is going to be invaluable when Jio moves to 5G. I expect an even faster deployment of 5G than what we saw with 4G.

Radisys is a 5G stack IP designer, like Tech Mahindra. Their work is more to do with software than hardware. They make the operating system on which Jio's 5G network will run. With traditional makers like Samsung, Nokia etc., you get hardware and software packaged together. Their hardware only works with their software. You can't mix and match here. So if you select Samsung, you'll be using their hardware and software for the entire telecom circle. If you choose a different vendor in a different circle then your equipment in one circle can't work with the equipment in the other circle. You have to pay more money to the vendors to make them compatible. Even then your network will slow down. Which is why it is better to get "exclusive" agreements with vendors. Like Jio had with Samsung, which has now expired. But exclusive agreements are incredibly expensive.

WiSig Networks is an architecture designer. To explain that let me simplify telcom networks for 4G, since 4G and 5G are essentially the same here:

Core network >>> 4G base stations >> Towers/FTTH/WiFi >>> User's device

The core network is essentially all the data servers and submarine cables combined. That connection between core network and 4G base stations is known as backhaul. The connection between base stations and Towers/FTTH/WiFi are directly owned by telecom companies and there isn't a lot else here. The connection between Towers/FTTH/WiFi to the users is called fronthaul.

The fronthaul design dictates user experience, so if you are getting a patchy network coverage in an area the problem is in fronthaul. The backhaul designs are about network capacity. How many users/functions can the network support at a time is decided by the backhaul. Both of them combined gives you the overall network speed. You'll hear comparisons of speed of various service providers (Jio vs Airtel vs BSNL etc). All of them use the same core network so why the different speeds ? It is due to the efficiency of the front and backhaul designs.

This is what WiSig designs. You have read about MIMO/Massive MIMO, those are designations of the front and backhaul design of 4G/5G networks. MIMO and Massive MIMO are way too complex to describe in a post. But know this, anybody who can design these networks can eventually make them more efficient and practical for real world deployment.

This is where the experience of Rancore comes in. For a Massive MIMO deployment Jio doesn't even need any Govt. approvals. They can quietly switch-out their in use Samsung designed MIMO to a Massive MIMO without anybody noticing. There will be an increase in network speed though, even on 4G.

Wonder why Jio is itching for 5G spectrum bidding to open already ? Maybe they have started doing the switching already. Early mover advantage is a big deal. In either case I am happy that the tech was domestically made. They do need hardware for deployment. I do hope opportunities are given to Indian hardware makers.

 

[_Anonymous_]

Most likely yes. We don't have any direct evidence though. Startups in their early stages tend to be very vocal and active on social media. They have to be to attract potential users & investors. They haven't posted an update for over an year. That's very unusual behavior for a start up, they were as active on SM and their website as other start ups before 2019. So why the sudden drop out ? They have clearly produced enough IP to gather interest from would be investors. At this time of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" a start up with such tech should be screaming on top of their lungs. An acquisition by Jio with a built-in non-disclosure agreement is the only thing that fits in.

Why would it not be possible ? Start up acquisitions are hardly a break from the norm.

Oh I see the contention. But the GoI never owned any part of WiSig & never invested any money in it. What GoI did was investing money in the IITs to conduct tests and set up industry standards. There was a big debate raging a few years back about 5G standards which have abated largely due to this. It was in GoI's direct interest to find out which frequency bands they can sell and to have a demonstration to prove a 5G network can be set up on those bands. Though there might still be problems ahead as ISRO uses some parts of the 5G spectrum.

The WiSig's founders proved the technological viability of 5G in India. Then they decided to take a commercial turn. They wanted to become a network architecture designer. You could argue that GoI's financial support directly and indirectly enabled them to get to the stage of technical capability where they could do a commercial launch, as such launching a company is essentially taking Govt.'s money to launch a for-profit private venture. That is true.

Similar statements can be made about all new tech adoptions in India and abroad. Remember how the banks that allowed UPI to do testing on their systems were the first beneficiary of the service. The early adopters gained disproportionately more money than the late adopters. 5G is no exception.

No system is perfect. When you can make your own tech some of your companies gain disproportionately, when you can't make your own tech foreign companies gain disproportionately. Given a choice, I would choose the less unfavorable of the two options.

They all serve a different purpose & fit in just fine:

Rancore is the network manager. They decide where to set up the base stations & towers, which radio cells to use, how to provide uninterrupted power to the towers and stations. They run & maintain the network. Their work has to do with physical infrastructure. The 4G network's infra is very different from 2G/3G networks. Rancore designed, planned & executed Jio's whole nationwide 4G network at record speed, although it has struggled a lot more with the JioFibre deployment. Be that as it may, the experience from building and running such a massive network is going to be invaluable when Jio moves to 5G. I expect an even faster deployment of 5G than what we saw with 4G.

Radisys is a 5G stack IP designer, like Tech Mahindra. Their work is more to do with software than hardware. They make the operating system on which Jio's 5G network will run. With traditional makers like Samsung, Nokia etc., you get hardware and software packaged together. Their hardware only works with their software. You can't mix and match here. So if you select Samsung, you'll be using their hardware and software for the entire telecom circle. If you choose a different vendor in a different circle then your equipment in one circle can't work with the equipment in the other circle. You have to pay more money to the vendors to make them compatible. Even then your network will slow down. Which is why it is better to get "exclusive" agreements with vendors. Like Jio had with Samsung, which has now expired. But exclusive agreements are incredibly expensive.

WiSig Networks is an architecture designer. To explain that let me simplify telcom networks for 4G, since 4G and 5G are essentially the same here:

Core network >>> 4G base stations >> Towers/FTTH/WiFi >>> User's device

The core network is essentially all the data servers and submarine cables combined. That connection between core network and 4G base stations is known as backhaul. The connection between base stations and Towers/FTTH/WiFi are directly owned by telecom companies and there isn't a lot else here. The connection between Towers/FTTH/WiFi to the users is called fronthaul.

The fronthaul design dictates user experience, so if you are getting a patchy network coverage in an area the problem is in fronthaul. The backhaul designs are about network capacity. How many users/functions can the network support at a time is decided by the backhaul. Both of them combined gives you the overall network speed. You'll hear comparisons of speed of various service providers (Jio vs Airtel vs BSNL etc). All of them use the same core network so why the different speeds ? It is due to the efficiency of the front and backhaul designs.

This is what WiSig designs. You have read about MIMO/Massive MIMO, those are designations of the front and backhaul design of 4G/5G networks. MIMO and Massive MIMO are way to complex to describe in a post. But know this, anybody who can design these networks can eventually make them more efficient and practical for real world deployment.

This is where the experience of Rancore comes in. For a Massive MIMO deployment Jio doesn't even need any Govt. approvals. They can quietly switch-out their in use Samsung designed MIMO to a Massive MIMO without anybody noticing. There will be an increase in network speed though, even on 4G.

Wonder why Jio is itching for 5G spectrum bidding to open already ? Maybe they have started doing the switching already. Early mover advantage is a big deal. In either case I am happy that the tech was domestically made. They do need hardware for deployment. I do hope opportunities are given to Indian hardware makers.

Excellent post. Hats off.

 

[AbRaj]

@Gautam Jio has exclusive aggregate with Samsung to setup their whole 4G network infra.(Not Rancore)
Not sure about the jio fibre.

 

[Gautam]

Jio has exclusive aggregate with Samsung to setup their whole 4G network infra.(Not Rancore)

Yep. The hardware, software, radios are all from Samsung. The network architecture(MIMO) is also from Samsung. Rancore did the deployment and running of the network with help in network maintenance.

The exclusive agreement has ended recently and Jio hasn't renewed it. On top of that Jio has announced their plans of going it alone with 5G. It is likely Jio might need Samsung in the near future as 5G is some time away and Jio's 4G networks isn't going anywhere. Samsung is now pitching 5G tech to Airtel and 4G to BSNL to ensure their survival in Indian telecom market.

Not sure about the jio fibre.

Fibre is relatively much simpler. Samsung isn't involved here. But the problem with FTTH is the widescale need to dig up roads to get fibre underground. Jio ran into a lot of court cases with this.

 

[Ashwin]

Most likely yes. We don't have any direct evidence though. Startups in their early stages tend to be very vocal and active on social media. They have to be to attract potential users & investors. They haven't posted an update for over an year. That's very unusual behavior for a start up, they were as active on SM and their website as other start ups before 2019. So why the sudden drop out ? They have clearly produced enough IP to gather interest from would be investors. At this time of "Atmanirbhar Bharat" a start up with such tech should be screaming on top of their lungs. An acquisition by Jio with a built-in non-disclosure agreement is the only thing that fits in.

Why would it not be possible ? Start up acquisitions are hardly a break from the norm.

I don't think so. It's not possible to cover up a merger or acquisition. That too in a trending field. Also, there could be investors cashing out and making noises.

There is no compulsion for these companies to be updating every move on social media. Its not an internet company or B2C.

Just checked linkedin. Headcount has gone up!.

 

[_Anonymous_]

I don't think so. It's not possible to cover up a merger or acquisition. That too in a trending field. Also, there could be investors cashing out and making noises.

There is no compulsion for these companies to be updating every move on social media. Its not an internet company or B2C.

Just checked linkedin. Headcount has gone up!.

That's precisely what he's saying. It wasn't an M&A, it was a buyout of a startup. The latter can be under the radar without recourse to publicity. The only part unexplained here is if the GoI invested in such a start up & a pvt company went on to buy out such a start up would it be in contradiction of any laws. Having said that, I'm not aware of any specific law prohibiting it unless existing laws cater to such an eventuality. Probably a closer look at the GoI's terms to fund such startups needs to be scrutinized.

 

[Gautam]

Saankhya Labs. This Indian fabless semiconductor firm already offers a suite of communications equipment like SDRs, Satcoms etc. to the Indian military, ISRO, Railways, BEL and so on. They design their own chips and get them manufactured by Samsung or TSMC. Given our lack of modern digital fabs this is the best we can do right now.

Saankhya Labs is developing an ORAN 7.2x compliant multiband 5G Remote Radio Unit (RRU). The radio unit will be available by Q1 2021. This is probably a small cell unit. Micro cells and macro cell units will come soon after this.

Finally some hardware news. Official announcements of what I previously posted:


Saankhya Labs to unveil homegrown 5G network solutions in 2021

'We are working on developing an Open RAN based cognitive scalable 5G RAN solution which includes Multi-Band Remote Radio Units with advanced analytics capabilities and a RAN Intelligent Controller platform. It will help in the optimization of spectrum usage '

By Muntazir Abbas
ET Telecom
Updated: August 24, 2020, 12:54 IST

The government should support Indian companies involved in the development network components such as 5G radio units, and the company's 5G units would be available from 2021, said Parag Naik, co-founder, and chief executive of homegrown Saankhya Labs. In an interaction with ETTelecom's Muntazir Abbas, Naik speaks on telecom network design, scalable Open RAN solution, and field testing of equipment. Edited excerpts.

Your views on telecom networks, chipsets, and 5G technology in the wake of PM's call for Atmanirbhar Bharat ?

Telecom network design is at an inflection point from both technology and geo-political perspective. There is a drive towards more open and disaggregated “cloud-based” networks and generally virtualization or IT-fication of the network. This will drastically change the telecom service provider ecosystem. Operators want to take away control from the hegemony of a few large vendors and want to build a new ecosystem of vendors that is agile and responsive. This is a massive shift. Greenfield deployments like Rakuten and Dish are leading the way in creating this new ecosystem.

It is unfortunate that India has woken up due to an unfortunate external trigger of geo-politics to build an indigenous 5G ecosystem. Telecom networks are the new digital highways. If we don’t control the technology and what flows through these highways, we will end up being a digital colony. We sincerely hope that Atmanirbhar Bharat doesn’t remain just an acronym. For that to happen the government needs to think strategically with a 5-year plan of building telecom gear giants in India with monetary and market support. In telecom infrastructure, the government should support Indian companies which are developing components like 5G radio units and data centres.

Not just in India, but also in the US, there is a clamor for local 5G chipset companies. Owning IPR and chipsets is the key to building an indigenous telecom ecosystem. The government has to incentivize more R&D investments in this sector. In the short term, we should focus on building “fabless semiconductor” companies that are less capital intensive. Once there is a critical mass of these then the fab will automatically be the right choice. We also need to develop indigenous fabrication units. Fabrication is highly capital intensive and government support is required.

How prepared you are for 5G technology ? What are your core offerings ?

Saankhya Labs is India’s premier wireless communication solutions company which is working on 5G technology. We foresaw the software-defined networks long before the industry did and are well placed to execute on 5G. We are working on developing an Open RAN based cognitive scalable 5G RAN solution which includes Multi-Band Remote Radio Units with advanced analytics capabilities and a RAN Intelligent Controller platform. It will help in the optimization of spectrum usage. Our 5G Remote Units will be available from Q1 of 2021. We are in discussions with some US-based customers and partners to take our product into the market especially for the US market. We provide Radio units and chipsets (current and future) for vRAN type deployments.

In addition, we are at the forefront of a concept called 5G broadcast which is basically a convergence of broadband and broadcast networks. This is ideal for India where operators have smaller spectrum holding but end up carrying a lot of video traffic. We have chipsets, hardware, and software for this solution. We have also pioneered a concept called Cognitive RAN that allows ML techniques to be applied to RANs and improves capacity and reduces op-ex for operators. This is a patented technique under development. We have around 65 patents on various aspects of the technology.

What type of support you are looking from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) ?

DoT can play a major role in carrying out the actual implementation of "AtmaNirbhar Bharat". DoT can encourage and put in place policies that will enable PSU’s to adopt an Open RAN based solution for 5G deployment. DoT can also help provide incentives to Indian operators to buy India made equipment. Market access enablement is the best way to encourage more companies to take up design and manufacturing in India. As building RAN chipsets and solutions is a capital-intensive business, we need monetary support and market access to mature some of our solutions. Telecom network equipment requires a lot of field testing, trials, and hard for any new player that comes along. This is the only way to make Indian companies globally competitive. By giving early access to real trial deployments, DoT can enable Indian companies to reach that stage in a shorter time frame.

Since 5G requires global standards compliance, is it not something that India has missed ?

That is partly true. Global standardization is a long drawn process, and unless we are actively in it for at least 5-6 years there is no way to bring any meaningful contribution to any standard. India has definitely missed the bus for 5G, but we need to immediately start looking at the future now if we don’t want to miss the bus for 6G or beyond. The process has to start now. And it includes building a strong base of intellectual property, and encourage R&D. Without that, India will not have much success in global standardization. This is another area where DoT can incentivize companies and encourage them to contribute. It is the lack of capital and a long term strategy that hinders contributions of the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI). We are standardizing the 5G broadcast solution and are bringing in a few other interesting contributions to the standards in the near future.

Your roadmap for 5G and beyond (6G) ?

Parallelly, we are also developing a cognitive RAN solution which is a 6G technology. There are two prevailing views of what 6G would look like. One is the traditional “fatter” pipe, however, we are focused on the platform-centric “smarter” pipe and more virtualization on the handset. If 5G is about virtualized RAN’s, 6G will be virtualization on steroids and extend this to the handsets and consumer devices. We have the essential IPR for this and we believe this would disrupt the way networks are designed and deployed in the future.

Saankhya Labs to unveil homegrown 5G network solutions in 2021 - ET Telecom

5G Network: 'We are working on developing an Open RAN based cognitive scalable 5G RAN solution which includes Multi-Band Remote Radio Units with advanced analytics capabilities and a RAN Intelligent Controller platform. It will help in the optimization of spectrum usage '

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com

 

[Gautam]

Jio may soon start partnerships talks for its own 5G; may finalise technology export strategy

Jio Platforms, the parent of Reliance Jio Infocomm, may target West Asia, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asian regions for its self-developed 5G technology after it tests and scales it up in India, even as it looks to form partnerships to locally manufacture equipment, said company executives and analysts.

By Danish Khan
ET Telecom
August 24, 2020, 15:43 IST

New Delhi: Jio Platforms, the parent of Reliance Jio Infocomm, may target West Asia, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asian regions for its self-developed 5G technology after it tests and scales it up in India, even as it looks to form partnerships to locally manufacture equipment, said company executives and analysts. It will soon start discussions with various local players in the domain of system integration and local manufacturing of its 5G gear, said a senior company executive.

“Electronic manufacturing needs to be done through specialised firms, whether it is Jio or any other provider. This will be done in India,” the executive said on condition of anonymity, adding that discussions were underway with various companies for partnerships.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch said in a recent report that Jio may depend on its 4G gear partner Samsung so that its 5G equipment is backward compatible. “If Samsung starts assembling/manufacturing 5G massive MIMO/RU in India (in its handset factory), then Jio’s entire 5G stack in theory would be ‘Made in India’,” said the report.

The executive cited earlier said Jio will be focusing on markets which are not advanced in terms of telecom networks and may take some time to migrate to 5G.

“The potential targets for Jio could be markets which will be slightly late in deploying 5G - countries in Middle East, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asia,” said Ashwinder Sethi, principal at Analysys Mason.

However, the Bank of America Merrill Lynch report said “offering ‘managing services’ to other international telcos is entirely a different proposition”, expressing doubts over Jio’s export potential. “It remains unclear to us why other telcos would open their networks and allow another telco to manage their networks,” it said.

With 5G, telecom networks are becoming more software-centric and cloud-native, allowing for de-coupling of software and hardware. Jio is making a strong push towards deploying its own end-to-end 5G software solution, with focus on OpenRAN and virtualisation, to reduce reliance on traditional telecom vendors.

OpenRAN enables hardware and software to be dis-aggregated, unlike conventional radio gears, allowing technology products from different suppliers to co-exist with the various software providers. This move would also help telcos cut network-related costs and bring more customisation as they prepare for 5G, said experts.

Analysts said Jio is likely to embrace OpenRAN techniques or possibly even Cloud-RAN as an architecture. This could reduce Jio’s network roll-out costs by 10-15% compared with using traditional infrastructure providers, UBS said in a report.

Neil Shah, partner at Counterpoint Research, said Jio is leaning towards OpenRAN technology to deploy a cost-efficient, no vendor lock-in 5G network and will ideally need to work with partners to integrate the system completely in-house.

“Similar to Rakuten, Jio will look to sell the technologies in the form of either an end-to-end platform it will build or in a modular way to the other operators globally. For example, the software piece would come from Radisys or Jio and do the design and integration as per the operators’ needs,” said Shah.

Further, the bigger opportunity for Jio lies with the emergence of private 5G networks and selling the Jio network platform & integration services to companies across different verticals looking to deploy their own 5G networks and don’t want to rely on integrating everything from RAN to Core by themselves, Shah added.

Rakuten has developed Rakuten Mobile Platform (RMP), which is essentially packaging its mobile network strategy into a product, which is a “containerised, cloud platform”. The Japanese e-commerce firm’s RMP comprises its software powering its 4G and 5G radio to the OSS (operations support systems) and BSS (business support systems) through partners.

Bernstein said in a recent note that Indian IT services players could become Jio's partners as they have capabilities in 5G since they have worked with global telcos.

“Telecom vertical is 15-40% of overall revenues. Tech Mahindra has a stake in Altiostar which is helping Rakuten to deploy its 5G network in Japan,” said Bernstein.

Jio may soon start partnerships talks for its own 5G; may finalise technology export strategy - ET Telecom

Jio Platforms, the parent of Reliance Jio Infocomm, may target West Asia, Eastern Europe and Southeast Asian regions for its self-developed 5G technology after it tests and scales it up in India, even as it looks to form partnerships to locally manufacture equipment, said company executives and...

telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com