ZTE has tied up with Airtel, Vodafone and Reliance Jio for pre-5G trials; to make telecom products customised for local needs

Chinese telecom equipment and smartphone maker ZTE has said that it has begun its pre-5G trials in India. ZTE has partnered with Indian telecom players such as Bharti Airtel, Vodafone India and Reliance Jio for this project and will design and develop future technologies including 5G. [caption id=“attachment_797709” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] ZTE Logo is seen in this file photo. AP[/caption] According to a report by The Economic Times, ZTE president of global marketing and solutions Fan Xiaobing said that the opportunity around 5G in India will be big for the Chinese company_._ The company is expected to usher in  telecom products which have been customised to fulfill local needs. Speaking to ET, Xiaobing said that India is an important market as it offers a lot of scale. “Telecom industry is all about scale, and India offers scale. Indian telecom market will grow very fast…We are increasing our investments in India to support growth,” said Xiaobing. ZTE expects Indian business to grow faster than its other global markets. ZTE will be competing with the likes of Huawei Technologies, Nokia and Ericsson in India. More recently, ZTE has won a contract for network expansion of BSNL in the north and east of India. ZTE has also signed a deal with BSNL to provide network support and **5G gear for future needs** . According to Peng Aiguang, CEO of ZTE India, the company is testing its 5G-ready products with Airtel and BSNL. It claims to be the only company which is doing pre-5G trials with Airtel, Vodafone and Jio along with providing massive **MIMO** technology to Airtel. At the recently concluded **India Mobile Congress** in New Delhi, 5G was definitely an area of focus. Last week, telecom minister Manoj Sinha said that the government will set up a high-level 5G committee. “We have created a high-level 5G committee that will work on vision mission and goals of 5G. When the world will roll out 5G in 2020, I believe India will be at par with them,” Telecom Minister Manoj Sinha said. Disclaimer: Reliance Industries Ltd. is the sole beneficiary of Independent Media Trust which controls Network18 Media & Investments Ltd.