Jio and its committed 5G endeavours; achieves over 1Gbps speed in trials with Qualcomm

In his flourishing telecom business, Reliance Industries’ Chairman Mukesh Ambani wants to accomplish 2 immediate goals. One, Ambani, through Jio wants to see a ‘2G mukt Bharat’, where he is determined to upgrade India’s 350 million 2G-based feature phone users to 4G smartphones. And, second, he has envisioned Jio to be the first 5G spectrum service provider in India, which will be coupled by the launch of a 5G enabled smartphone.

What we have heard is that Jio is preparing to launch a 5G smartphone for as low as Rs 5,000. Another revelation is the surprising plan of deliberately reducing the 5G phone price to Rs 2,500-3,000. This is planned to rope in 20-30 crore mobile phone users who use a 2G connection currently.

Well, with investors like Facebook, Google, and other leading foreign financial giants’ money invested in Jio, these goals seem very near to be accomplished.

5G Trials with Qualcomm

The latest in all its 5G endeavours is this: Jio Platforms with Qualcomm Technologies and along with its wholly-owned subsidiary Radisys Corporation has expanded efforts to develop open and interoperable interface-compliant architecture-based 5G solutions with a virtualized RAN.

Qualcomm Technologies and Jio have together achieved over a 1 Gbps milestone on the Jio 5GNR solution, leveraging the Qualcomm 5G RAN Platforms.

This achievement, according to the company, not only supports Jio’s 5G credentials but also signifies the entry of Jio and India into the Gigabit 5G NR product portfolio.

With 5G technology, users will experience the benefits of higher data rates, low latency communications, and enhanced digital experiences across a wide array of connected devices, from 5G-enabled smartphones to enterprise laptops to AR/VR products to vertical IoT solutions.

This work, they say, is intended to fast track the development and roll-out of indigenous 5G network infrastructure and services in India.

Commenting about this accomplishment, Mathew Oommen, President, Reliance Jio Infocomm, said, “We are excited about working with Qualcomm Technologies in developing new generation cloud native 5G RAN technology that is truly open and software-defined. The development of secure RAN solutions with Qualcomm Technologies combined with Jio Platforms and scale provides the ideal combination for local manufacturing and for accelerating the realization of Atmanirbhar Bharat for an inclusive 5G nation.”

Durga Malladi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, 4G/5G, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., said, “Qualcomm Technologies aims to deliver cutting-edge technology for virtualized, flexible and interoperable 5G infrastructure across the globe. We recently achieved over a 1 Gbps milestone on the Reliance Jio 5G NR product, leveraging our Qualcomm 5G RAN Platforms, and we look forward to expanding our efforts with Reliance Jio to enable flexible and scalable 5G RAN deployments. Ecosystem collaborations like this play a critical role in allowing operators and industry verticals to quickly and easily add 5G network coverage and capacity where and when it is needed most.”

And Rajen Vagadia, Vice President, Qualcomm India Private Limited and President, Qualcomm India, said, "We're delighted to enter a new phase in our longtime relationship with Reliance Jio, building on our shared vision for 5G and supporting the digital transformation of India. As the need for reliable, robust, and powerful mobile experiences increases across India, we anticipate a new wave of demand for 5G services from both end-users and enterprises, such as manufacturing, health care and retail. Jio is regarded as a game-changer in delivering cost-effective and widespread 4G network coverage to its subscribers and we look forward to working closely with them on the journey to rollout advanced 5G infrastructure and services for Indian customers.”