Reliance Jio trials connected robotics on its “indigenously developed” 5G network

Aayush Bhatnagar, SVP, of Reliance Jio said in a Linkedin post Friday:

Jio has successfully performed trials of Connected Robotics over its indigenously developed 5G RAN and 5G SA core network.  This underlines the true potential of 5G Standalone networks in realizing real-life industrial use cases.

Jio 5G Robotics have implemented a wide canvas of services – from heavy lifting and logistics at manufacturing warehouses, to healthcare robots assisting medical staff – from remote ultrasound enablement to industrial automation robots.

This development opens up exciting possibilities for value creation in Industry 4.0, with direct relevance to businesses and the economy.

Jio’s Bhatnagar has said India’s top telco has undertaken use case trials such as Voice and Messaging over 5G NR (VoNR) using its own home grown 5G RAN and Core network, which it plans to export or license once its 5G technology is tested and deployed throughout India.  Of course, that can’t happen till after the repeatedly delayed 5G spectrum auction (now scheduled for April or May 2022 if not delayed yet again).

Earlier this month, Jio reported it successfully trialed connected drones on its indigenous 5G network, the telco’s senior vice president Aayush Bhatnagar said.  The trial involved a precision command and control of drones over 5G using a fleet management system running in the Cloud to perform tasks such as image recognition, track-and-trace, discrete payload pickup, and delivery, drone route sorties, video imagery, real-time drone control, and other applications, the executive added.

“5G-connected drones will enable future use cases across industries and enterprises,” Bhatnagar said.  “At Jio, we have taken another major stride in “Making 5G real” – beyond speed tests and demos. Jio has successfully conducted trials of connected drones on its indigenous 5G network,” Bhatnagar said in a Linkedin post.

Jio has not disclosed all the other companies are helping to design, develop and test their indigenous 5G RAN and Core network. In July, Intel said that it is helping Reliance Jio make the transition from 4G to 5G as part of their 5G infrastructure deal. Intel and Jio are collaborating in the areas of 5G radio, core, cloud, edge and artificial intelligence.

“…our collaboration spans those areas, and it’s co-innovation. So, we have got our engineering and business unit teams working closely with Reliance Jio in those areas. And we are committed towards helping customers and partners like Reliance Jio to make the transition from 4G to 5G,” Prakash Mallya, vice president and Managing Director of sales, marketing and communications group at Intel told Economic Times.

Intel’s investment arm, Intel Capital, had in 2020 invested Rs 1,894.50 crore to buy a 0.39% equity stake in Jio Platforms.

While speaking at Reliance Industries Ltd’s 44th AGM, RIL Chairman Mukesh Ambani said that:

“Jio’s engineers have developed a 100 per cent home-grown and comprehensive 5G solution that is fully cloud native, software defined, and digitally managed. Jio’s ‘Made in India‘ solution is complete and globally competitive.”

Ambani also said that his company has achieved 1Gbps download speed on its 5G trial network.

As for Jio’s 5G competitors:

  • Bharti Airtel previously said that it was collaborating with global consulting firm Accenture, along with Amazon Web Service (AWS), Cisco, Ericsson, Google Cloud, Nokia, Tata Consultancy, and unnamed others to demonstrate enterprise-grade use cases using high-speed, low-latency 5G networks.
  • Airtel has been working on the 5 G-based solutions with Apollo Hospitals, Flipkart, and other manufacturing companies.
  • Vodafone Idea (VI) has partnered with Nokia and Ericsson to work on several 5 G-powered applications, including enhanced mobile broadband (emBB), ultra-reliable low latency communications (uRLLC), multi-access edge computing (MEC), and AR/VR.

5G trials began earlier this year in May and in June:

  • Jio reported achieving speeds over 1Gbps during the trial.
  • Airtel also reported achieving over 1Gbps peak speed during its 5G network trial.
  • VI claims to achieve a peak 5G speed of 3.7Gbps on the mmWave spectrum during the network trials in Pune.

Last month, India’s Department of Telecom (DoT) granted a six-month extension for 5G trials in India to telecom operators, including Jio, Airtel, and VI, upon their request. The telecom operators are currently conducting 5G trials in various parts of the country and have achieved tremendous results. However, the extension means that the 5G spectrum auction won’t happen anytime soon. So any 5G commercial launch is still a long way off in India.

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One thought on “Reliance Jio trials connected robotics on its “indigenously developed” 5G network

  1. will introduce its 5G wireless services by Deepavali [October second half] starting with the cities of Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata and Chennai, Chairman and Managing Director Mukesh Ambani said on Monday.

    The 5G services will be rapidly expanded to other cities, in phases over 18 months, so as to cover the entire country by December 2023, Mr. Ambani told shareholders at the company’s 45th annual general meeting. “Jio’s ambitious 5G roll-out plan will be the fastest in the world,” he said.

    “Jio’s 5G network will be stand-alone with zero dependency on 4G network,” he said, adding that the company’s service would “offer an unparalleled combination of coverage, capacity, quality and affordability”.

    “With stand-alone 5G, Jio can deliver new and powerful services like low latency, massive machine-to-machine communication, 5G voice, Edge computing and network slicing, and metaverse,” he elaborated.

    Jio has partnered with Qualcomm to develop 5G solutions tailored for India and is working with Google to develop ultra-affordable 5G smartphones, Mr. Ambani said.

    With 5G, Jio would roll out billions of smart sensors with connected intelligence that would trigger Internet of Things, he said. “It will connect everyone, every place and every thing with the highest quality and most affordable data,” he added.

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