The three days long India Mobile Congress 2018 concluded yesterday which showcased the latest and the best in digital
communications technologies, products, services, and applications and establishing future horizons for the digital communications sector in the country. Here are the highlights from the IMC 2018.
On Day 1, a number of exhibitors including Reliance Jio, Intel, Nokia, and Qualcomm participated in 5G trials. This was the first time people could get a glimpse of what is to be expected from 5G in the years to come and how it can affect the scope and development of futuristic technologies. A number of discussions were pivoted around how such technologies will shape India’s digital future. The sessions showcased India’s 5G potential and the numerous unique use cases 5G will have in India. 
The introductory panel discussion, around the theme – The India Story (Stack 3.0) – Connect, Create, Innovate saw a number of interesting and vital discussions on The Evolving Regulatory Landscape in the New Digital Ecosystem-Regulatory Brief, Enabling Futuristic Networks – Reducing complexity to Redefine connectivity, Digital Identity – A revolution or a threat, Connecting the Unconnected – Building Next-Gen ICT Infrastructure for the Masses, Gadgets of Tomorrow –
Connected Intelligence, graced by speakers such as Mr. Ajit Pai, Chairman, U.S. Federal Communications Commission, Mr. David Hammarwall, Head of Product Line 5G RAN, Product Area Networks, Ericsson, Mr. Vinayak Godse, Senior Director, Data Security Council of India, Mr. Bimal Dayal, CEO, Indus Towers and Mr. Jonathan Wood, Senior Director, Intel Next Generation and Standards, Intel.
IMC 2018 also hosted the ASEAN & BIMSTEC Conclave which was addressed by delegates including Shri Manoj Sinha, Hon’ble Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Communications and Minister of State for Railways and 16 other Ministers from ASEAN &.
Samsung
At India Mobile Congress 2018, Samsung announced its plan for India’s first large-scale 5G trial, scheduled to take place in the first quarter of 2019 in collaboration with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT). In his keynote speech at the event, Youngky Kim, President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, said, “Samsung will pave the way for
5G to unlock the full potential of India together with industry leaders.” “We are witnessing a rise in adoption of new technologies, inspired by ‘Digital India’ and spurred by the transition to 4G,” he said.
MediaTek
Popular SoC maker, MediaTek announced the launch of the Helio P70 system-on-chip (SoC), with Advanced AI, enhanced camera features announced for mid-range devices. The Helio P70 is built with TSMC’s 12nm FinFET technology and features a multi-core APU operating at up to 525 MHz. It is packed with four Arm Cortex-A73 2.1 GHz processors and four Arm Cortex-A53 2.0 GHz processors in an octa-core big.LITTLE configuration. For an additional power boost, the chipset has an improved Arm Mali-G72 MP3 GPU operating at up to 900 MHz, which provides a 13% performance improvement compared to the Helio P60. The Helio P70 will come with up to 2400 x 1080 (Full HD+) 20:9 aspect ratio display support, eMMC 5.1 or UFS 2.1 storage and up to 8GB of LPDDR4x RAM, ARM Mali-G72 MP3 GPU clocked at 900MHz.
Nokia
Nokia’s manufacturing unit in Chennai has started manufacturing 5G New Radio (NR) based on the 3GPP 5G New Radio Release 15 standard. It is the factory to start manufacturing 5G radio equipment in India. The Chennai plant is one of the largest telecom equipment manufacturing plant in the country, recently reaching the 4 million units annual
production milestone of 2G, 3G, and 4G units. It serves both domestic as well as global customers, shipping to over 100 countries. As part of an on-going program, known as the ‘Conscious factory’. Smart Manufacturing application of Industry 4.0 in India leveraging solutions such as Augmented and Virtual Reality (AR/VR), connected Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data Analytics, and the Internet of Things to enhance operations and increase productivity. The plant
is equipped with cutting-edge manufacturing technologies, such as the state-of-the-art surface mounting technology, with a capacity of 12.8 billion components every year, 3D automated optical inspection and X-Ray inspection capability.
Huawei
Huawei cleared its Commitment to bring 5G to India with Full Range End-to-EndTechnology Showcase at IMC 2018 – Conducting industry’s first 5G use case demos in partnership with Airtel, Huawei paves ROADS to a fully connected and intelligent world.
Day 2
The 2nd day of IMC 2018 started on a high note with the Global CEOs Conclave, which included sessions on subjects such as Networks of Tomorrow, Emerging Technologies, Power of Content, Open Source Technologies etc. Who’s who of the global
technology arena came together to deliberate on the future of technology and how it will bring about paradigm shifts in the way we go about our day to day lives.
Innovation sessions
The Emerging World of Analytics, Artificial Intelligence, E-tail – The need of the Future, HealthTech – Age of Cyborgs, Industry 4.0: Building Factories of the Future, M-Education, Value Creation through Digital Marketing, Future of Enterprise, Aadhaar etc. Other sessions of Day 2 included discussions around The Emerging World of Analytics: Creating Business Solutions, HealthTech – Age of Cyborgs, Value Creation through Digital Marketing, Artificial Intelligence: Innovation, Investments, Ethics and Responsibilities, Industry 4:0: Building Factories of the Future, Future of Enterprise – Serving the Millennials, Next Generation Devices.
Huawei
On the second day, Huawei announced the launch of its OpenLab in India to provide a one-stop ICT infrastructure support for smart city and enterprises digitization transformation. A testimony to Huawei’s commitment to Government of India’s Digital India agenda, the OpenLab Delhi aims to establish an industry ecosystem and serve as a co-innovation platform for Huawei, its customers, and partners, both in India and globally, for incubating industry solutions to address the challenges of digital transformation.
Airtel 3.0
Airtel showcased a range of futuristic digital technologies like 5G, Connected Home, Connected Car, and few other exciting products. The showcase is part of the company’s Airtel 3.0 vision under which it aims to build networks and services that enrich the lives of customers by enabling world-class digital experiences.
Sterlite Tech
Sterlite Tech, a global data networks solutions company, announced that it will develop and deliver software-enabled programmable solutions using Red Hat’s portfolio of open, enterprise-grade technologies. The solutions will enable communication service providers, enterprises and citizen networks to realize the full potential of web-scale Network
Function Virtualisation Infrastructure (NFVI) platform, for their network automation and Software Defined Network (SDN) initiatives.
Given the volume and variability in data demand by end users in today’s digital landscape, the networks of today and tomorrow need to be higher-speed, more secure, programmable and more reliable. To enable this, Sterlite Tech will leverage Red Hat’s suite to help develop a solution-stack that is more open and vendor agnostic. This will be set up at Sterlite Tech’s
Centre for Smarter Networks (CSN), showcasing its SDN and NFV offerings and next-generation revenue-management software, which builds upon the Red Hat NFV solution.
Those were the highlights from the India Mobile Congress 2018. Follow us on Twitter for more news and updates
