China's great success in the mobile communication industry ecology has deeply stimulated India's sensitive nerves. If China can succeed, why can't India? It also has a demographic dividend, and is also committed to industrial transformation and upgrading, and it is not enough to copy according to China's operations.
But the reality is so harsh. China has succeeded, 5G is leading the world, and the industrial ecology is thriving; India has failed, 5G is gone, the ecology is only better than nothing, and even the proudest 5G "paper" standard has come to an end.
The 3GPP RAN #94 conference, presented by the Telecommunications Standards Development Society (India, TSDSI) this week, tailored for India, the ITU-approved 5G international standard ---- 5Gi, finally gave up the follow-up evolution and returned to the embrace of mainstream 3GPP standards in the industry.
5Gi: India's Telecom Dream
In the mobile communication industry chain, standards are the lowest and most core. There are two main organizations known to the industry, the ITU is mainly responsible for proposing indicators and pointing out the problems that need to be solved, and 3GPP is responsible for completing the design and definition of specific technical standards and specifications. But the 3GPP is not the only one, and there are many institutions and even companies that can make proposals to it.
In addition to the 5Gi submitted by TSDSI in India, NR+LTE SRIT and NR RIT submitted by 3GPP organizations, NR+NB-IoT RIT submitted by China, EUHT submitted by Chinese company Nufront, and DECT-2020NR submitted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI) submitted by 5Gi submitted by 3GPP organizations, NR+NB-IoT RIT submitted by China, EUHT submitted by Chinese company Nufront, and DECT-2020NR submitted by the European Telecommunications Standards Institute (ETSI).
The final result of the evaluation was somewhat unexpected, China's NR+NB-IoT RIT and South Korea's NR RIT were integrated by the 3GPP organization's 5G-SRIT and 5G-RIT, and India's TSDSI was shortlisted. The Indian mission to the United Nations in Geneva declared on social media that "India's wireless air interface technology being recognized by ITU as one of the global 5G standards will contribute to the digital transformation of the world and India, which is a landmark victory of Prime Minister Modi Atmanirbhar Bharat's initiative!" ”
For India, this victory was indeed hard-won. In the promotion of 5Gi international standardization, there are indeed many challenges encountered, and these challenges come from both internal and external. But India has a job to copy at this stage, that is, how TD-SCDMA, which is dominated by China's industrial chain, has become a global standard for 3G. On the international standardization road of TD-SCDMA, there have also been many different voices, until the Ministry of Information Industry strongly voiced that if China's TD standard is not adopted by ITU, China also has enough market space to support its own standards, China will still adopt and operate TD-SCDMA, which has changed the attitude of foreign communications giants, TD-SCDMA technology successfully passed the evaluation to become one of the three major international standards for 3G.
The same is true of 5Gi in India. Indian local operators are reluctant to support 5Gi, because supporting regional standards such as 5Gi means higher network construction and terminal costs, and does not support global roaming, and 5Gi and 3GPP mainstream standards are not compatible. At the same time, due to the reluctance of major global equipment manufacturers and terminal manufacturers to support 5Gi, this will lead to the elusiveness of 5G in India. But as an advocate of 5Gi, TSDSI does not deny these disadvantages, but TSDSI believes that 5Gi has only made few changes or enhancements to the specification of 3GPP; since 5Gi has become an international standard, India has the right to require global suppliers of 5G equipment and mobile phones to meet the standard requirements of 5Gi, and India's 5G construction may play a leading role in the world.
Waking up: Homework is not so easy to copy
The ideal is very full, the reality is very bone. Although the industry has also criticized TD-SCDMA, if it is put into a grander industrial environment, TD-SCDMA obviously has done more than it has done, not only allowing us to learn the rules of the industrial game, but also cultivating and expanding the complete mobile communication industry chain in China and cultivating a number of leading enterprises. In the evolution to TD-LTE, and even the follow-up 5G, Chinese national enterprises have truly come to the forefront of the world and become industry leaders and main forces.
But in contrast, India's 5Gi, in addition to the inexplicable excitement at the moment when it became an international standard, did not promote much of the Indian mobile communication industry chain. The formulation of international mainstream standards still has no voice, the system equipment still relies on imports (just change the supplier), even the mobile phone is basically the China Brand Expo.
So why is there such a big gap? The author believes that there are several main points.
First of all, India does not have the foundation for the development of the mobile communication industry at all, and China has accumulated a lot of accumulation in promoting the TD-SCDMA/TD-LTE industry. At the system and equipment level, Huawei, ZTE and other enterprises have accumulated rich experience in the construction of GSM, CDMA, and WCDMA networks at home and abroad; at the chip level, lianxin technology, Spreadtrum and other enterprises have also begun to emerge; at the level of smart terminals/mobile phones, cottage machines have been popular at that time; even in the subdivision field of test instrumentation, there have also been national manufacturers such as Galaxy Highlights and ZhongchuangXin Measurement. As for India, there are still no manufacturers who can get their hands on it.
Second, India's industrial policy lacks consistent clarity and impetus. China has a clear plan and goal for the development of the TD-SCDMA/TD-LTE industry, at least to achieve "one of the three parts of the world", and chose China Mobile, which has the most operational strength. China Mobile's attitude towards TD-SCDMA/TD-LTE is also a step forward with every effort and sparing no effort. Under the strong impetus of China Mobile, the entire industrial ecology is maturing and moving toward prosperity. In contrast, in India, no operator is willing to undertake the industrialization of 5Gi, and even India's state-owned operators are scornful of 5Gi.
Third, India has only learned the skin of China's industrial policy, but has not understood its essence. Here can be a few examples, taking the spectrum policy as an example, as the "first resource" of the mobile communication industry, China did not copy the european and American spectrum auction method, but adopted the method of government allocation to carry out sufficient, sustained and efficient supply. As for India, copying the European and American systems, operators have carried heavy financial burdens before network construction and operation! For example, China firmly chose the if frequency strategy, and India is still fighting between several government departments for the ownership and use of spectrum of 3300-3600 MHz!
In the face of the global 5G industry process in full swing, whether India continues to cling to its own 5Gi, or return to the mainstream stage of 3GPP, and do what it can do in peace! Now that you have the answer, realistically, it doesn't hurt! (Yue Ming)