Huawei confident it will be given permission for 5G trials in India

Huawei remains confident that it will be given permission to participate in 5G trials in India, ahead of India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2019. Department of Telecom (DoT) on Thursday allowed the Chinese telecom gear maker and provider Huawei to proceed with 5G 'use cases' demos at the IMC. Huawei is reportedly teaming up with Airtel and Vodafone to showcase its 5G possibilities with demos. The India Mobile Congress is scheduled between October 14-16. Responding to the DoT's nod, Huawei said the green signal sends a "positive message" and will bolster the industry's confidence to work with the company.

"The trust, confidence and the support being given by Government of India during this critical juncture, it is very important for us...This will send a strong signal to the industry. That will create overall confidence for industry and stakeholders. It will give confidence to operators to work with us and roll out more and more of new technologies," Chen said.

DoT grants Huawei permission to proceed with 5G 'use cases' demos

Airtel's Sunil Bharti Mittal supports Huawei ahead of India's 5G race

'We have been given spectrum to showcase 5G use cases'

Official sources said that the Department of Telecom has given approval to all companies including Nokia, Ericsson, Huawei and ZTE to demonstrate their technology during the IMC. The permission will be limited to three days, said the DoT official who did not wish to be named.

"We have been given spectrum to showcase 5G use cases. Apart from our own demo at IMC, we will be doing demos with the two operators. The good thing is...that everyone has been told formally in writing that you will have to share spectrum without any discrimination. COAI will be a coordinator," Chen added.

Huawei CEO 'pleasantly surprised' over Sunil Bharti Mittal's support

The Huawei official said that the company remains confident of a positive outcome on the issue of its presence in 5G trials in India and that Indian government must have its own standards, process and testing regime. 

"When we talk about the 5G trials in India, no one has been given an approval...Also, we are quite confident that Indian Government will take a positive decision, create a level-playing-field, and that Indian Government will take a decision on its own after considering all pros and cons. Any decision should be irrespective of the origin of the vendor," Chen said.

Airtel working with Huawei to deploy its 5G transmission equipment

The approval by DoT also assumes significance as it comes right ahead of the visit of Chinese President to India. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping will hold talks on October 11-12 to deepen ties, including in the field of counter-terrorism in the second informal summit.

India is yet to take a call on whether it intends to allow the firm to participate in 5G trials or not.

(With PTI inputs)