Ericssson said that Indian telecom operators are making continuous investments to expand their 4G networks even as the industry goes through a consolidation phase which is resulting in a fewer number of service providers. The gear vendor is also expecting to commercially deploy massive MIMO for some top telecom operators in India, reported ET citing source.
Nitin Bansal, Managing Director, Ericsson India, told ET that currently trials are ongoing with India’s large telcos in India and the commercial deployment will start in the second half of the year.
In India, Bharti Airtel has commercially deployed massive MIMO technology in technology across a few circles using Huawei and ZTE gear. Airtel was the mobile operator in India to commercially deploy Massive MIMO. Reliance Jio, Vodafone, and Idea Cellular have already been piloting the technology in various circles.
On the industry-wide network expansion, Bansal said that the expansion is happening across radio, core and transport areas as telcos want to address the ongoing demand for capacity due to rapid data growth.
The English Daily informed that Ericsson is also said to be talks with telcos to launch narrow-band Internet of Things (IoT) networks. Jio has already launched its commercial NBIoT network in India, while Vodafone is currently exploring the launch.
Ericsson is currently working with IIT-Delhi to trial 5G technology and develop 5G-related use cases. Bansal said that the trials of massive MIMO using the 3.5GHz band, being considered as the prime band for 5G technology, are possible in the country.
