The European Union is looking to work with the Indian government to create open and transparent security standards for 5G technology rollouts across Europe and India, as concerns grow about the dominance of Chinese telecom giants.
A report by Bloomberg quoted European Commission (EC) EVP Margrethe Vestager saying that the EU has intentions to collaborate with India on creating global standards for security and transparency in 5G rollouts.
EU officials are expected to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi and discuss the telecom security matter as part of a broader discourse on security and trade issues during the India-EU summit in Portugal on May 8.
The Commissioner reportedly highlighted the EU’s desire to collaborate with democratic partners on establishing open standards for 5G rollouts and protect networks in the light of “a systematic rivalry”, supposedly hinting at heightened concerns around Chinese vendors.
Recently, a report titled 'Shaping Europe’s digital future' revealed that the 5G Infrastructure Association, the private side of the 5G Infrastructure Public Private Partnership (5G PPP), signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Telecommunications Standards Development Society, India (TSDSI) two years ago intending to foster industrial cooperation between India and Europe.
This cooperation targets regular and structured exchange of information of regional developments including regulatory and 5G spectrum approaches technological approaches towards standardisation, deployment experience, and involvement of vertical industries in the 5G ecosystem.
India has decided to distribute the 2.6 GHz spectrum based on the full TDD mode similar to China, the USA, Japan. Positions on other bands are not yet official but are part of the cooperation discussion between 5G-IA and TSDSI.
Besides, the Commission cooperates with the Indian government on digital issues including 5G through the EU-India co-operation dialogue on Digital Communications as well as the EU-India Joint Working Group on ICTs.
Alongside the US and India, several EU nations moved to impose restrictions on the use of equipment made by companies including Huawei and ZTE when building 5G networks over worries of ties with China’s government.
The EU reportedly needs to pour US$355 billion into deploying next-generation networks, and India is thought to require US$70 billion.
