India's Reliance Jio may abandon Samsung, buy Ericsson's 5G telecom equipment

India's largest wireless operator Reliance Jio may reportedly buy 5G telecom equipment from suppliers other than Jio's current 4G partner Samsung Electronics (Ericsson).

Business Standard quoted sources as saying that Reliance Jio and Ericsson have received official permission to conduct 5G trials in Mumbai and are awaiting approval for another 5G trial in Jamnagar, Gujarat. Reliance Jio may also have started talks with Nokia, the report said.

Reliance Jio uses Samsung's 4G telecom equipment to provide LTE services and has partnered with Samsung to conduct 5G trials in Mumbai. However, Reliance Jio has already conducted 5G trials of its equipment and technology in Mumbai and Jamnagar.

India is the second largest mobile telecommunications market in the world with over 1 billion mobile subscribers. By the end of 2021, Reliance Jio ranked second globally with more than 400 million subscribers, behind China Mobile's 965 million and slightly higher than China Telecom's 372 million in the same period.

Given Reliance's user base, telecom equipment makers are closely watching their procurement strategies. For LTE services, Reliance Jio exclusively uses Samsung equipment, but in the 5G era, Reliance Jio is willing to adopt a more diversified procurement and even localized development strategy.

Since Samsung doesn't offer 2G and 3G telecom equipment, other wireless carriers that still offer 2G and 3G services are unlikely to mix Samsung's 4G equipment with other telecom equipment makers' 2G and 3G gear.

However, the Economic Times reported that Reliance Jio did not rule out the possibility of using third-party 5G equipment. The report also cited sources as saying that Samsung may consider applying for the second round of the Production Linked Incentive (PLI) program for telecom and networking equipment, a sign that Samsung remains bullish on the Indian telecom equipment market.

According to Reuters, India announced in June that a 5G auction will be held at the end of July, with the goal of launching 5G in early 2023, and the three major wireless operators will participate in the auction. Some technology companies may also bid on bandwidth for private use.