Samsung and Reliance Jio Infocomm have teamed up to offer a taste of 5G networking at the India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2019 in New Delhi, just one week after Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong visited India, presumably for 5G-related discussions. At IMC 2019, the two companies aim to demonstrate how 5G technologies can benefit consumers and enterprises alike.
In addition, Samsung and Jio are also showcasing new use cases for the existing 4G infrastructure which can technically be used for what could become India’s Emergency Communication Network or “OneNet.”
A glimpse of 5G at IMC 2019
Samsung and Jio are showcasing 5G NSA (non-stand-alone) networking through two demonstrations at IMC 2019. One demo called Virtual Classroom allows visitors to watch a 360-degree virtual lecture from a classroom located in Jio’s Corporate Park in Mumbai. Meanwhile, the Massive Full High-Definition Content Streaming demonstration highlights 4K video streaming on multiple 5G tablets simultaneously.
The demos will be performed using Samsung’s 5G product portfolio including its 5G Massive MIMO Unit, 28GHz Access Unit (AU) and CEP device, as well as its virtualized radio access (vRAN) and core.
4G LTE could be used for India’s Emergency Communication Network
Samsung is going to play a big role in the expansion of 5G into India, but the existing 4G LTE infrastructure it helped build over the past decade could also become a part of India’s Emergency Communication Network.
Samsung and Jio will do a live demonstration of “public safety network over LTE” (PS-LTE) at IMC 2019, boasting Mission-Critical-Push-To-X (MCPTX) communication. Public Safety LTE (PS-LTE) using MCPTX opens up a lot more possibilities for first responders to connect in a “geo-fenced” environment. While legacy technologies are limited to voice communications, PS-LTE supports multicast technology allowing multi-lateral voice and video-based communications.
2020 is said to be the year of 5G, in the sense that the technology will become more mainstream and more 5G-enabled devices across multiple price points will be developed and released. So far, Samsung appears to have secured 5G clients across numerous markets – including Japan – and is seemingly in a very favorable position regarding its 5G market share.
