Reliance Jio has confirmed that it is focusing on 5G as a technology and is committed to make a home-grown 5G solution for mobile networks. This was announced at the 43rd Annual General Meeting of Reliance Industries Limited, in what is the first ever virtual AGM for the company. This comes just a few hours after US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo had praised India’s Reliance Jio as a clean network while being critical of Huawei’s 5G equipment as threats to national security, economic security, privacy, intellectual and human rights.
Reliance Jio says it is developing a 5G mobile network solution from the ground up, which will eliminate the need for the company to depend on third-party vendors including Huawei. It is expected that 5G network solution will be ready for testing sometime next year. There are plans to export this home-grown solution to mobile networks globally. The investment by technology giant Qualcomm could give Reliance Jio the technological advantage in the push for a new 5G mobile network 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," says Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries.
Chinese technology company Huawei has been under the scanner in many countries, including India, for potential data privacy and security issues in their 5G equipment for mobile networks. “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,” said Pompeo in an official statement.
At the same time, Reliance Jio is also focusing on pushing affordable 5G smartphones in India. This comes as Reliance Industries announced the Rs 33,373 crore investment by technology giant Google in Jio Platforms for a 7.7% stake. “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”, said Mukesh Ambani, Chairman and Managing Director of Reliance Industries. The attempt is to get all users in India to upgrade from 2G mobile networks to a much faster data experience.
Reliance Jio also confirms that they are working with Google for a custom Android-based smartphone operating system which is expected to power the affordable 5G smartphones, while retaining strengths including the Google Play Store for apps. This platform will also be developed in India. Jio also says they will also provide affordable 4G devices to more than 300 million feature phone users in India. JioPhone remains the most affordable 4G phone in the world.
“Google and Jio Platforms have entered into a commercial agreement to jointly develop an entry-level affordable smartphone with optimizations to the Android operating system and the Play Store. Together we are excited to rethink, from the ground up, how millions of users in India can become owners of smartphones,” says Sanjay Gupta, Country Head & VP, India at Google, says in an official statement.
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