Jio inks partnership with Finnish university to accelerate 6G research, standardization

Jio Platforms (JPL) has signed a pact with the University of Oulu, Finland, for undertaking research and standardization related activities in 6G technology.
“Today at Jio Platforms, we entered into a strategic partnership with the University of Oulu, Finland - to accelerate research and standardisation in 6G technology,” Jio Senior Vice President Aayush Bhatnagar Thursday said in a post on social media platform Linkedin.

JPL, established in October 2019 as a wholly owned unit of Reliance, houses the Mukesh Ambani-owned group’s telecom business Reliance Jio Infocomm, the largest in the country, and other digital properties and investments. Reliance Jio though makes up the bulk of JPL’s numbers.

"We are looking forward to collaborating with Jio Estonia and the entire Reliance Group on targeted research initiatives that will enable future wireless end-to-end solutions for a wide range of end-user requirements," said Matti Latva-aho, Director of the 6G Flagship.

JPL and the University of Oulu will collaborate in Research and Development (R&D) of aerial and space communication, holographic beamforming, 3D-connected intelligence in cybersecurity, microelectronics, and photonics.

“The collaborative effort will aid in competing with 6G enabled products in the defense, automotive, white goods, industrial machinery, consumer goods, efficient manufacturing, novel personal smart device environments, and experiences such as urban computing and autonomous traffic settings,” Latva-aho added.

This collaboration will further extend Jio's 5G capabilities and will help explore use cases in the 6G-era, in addition to research and development of the technology itself.

Currently, Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea (Vi) are developing locally relevant 5G use cases using the 5G trial spectrum allotted by the government. Airtel and Vi have further partnered with enterprise players to develop 5G use cases.

Jio has said it has developed its homegrown 5G stack that it will export to foreign markets once it has been deployed and tested at a pan-India scale.

“Jio already has significant assets in its indigenous 5G technology stack which have been deployed at scale, and with this partnership, we will build upon our capabilities to fuel the next wave of innovation,” Bhatnagar further said.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on December 30 had formed six academia-driven task forces under the technology Innovation Group or TIG to work on various aspects of the 6G technology, even as 5G spectrum sale is yet to take place.

The DoT through its innovation group is inviting various stakeholders and partners to help find out technologies that are under development in India and can form a part of 6G so that the same can be pushed for R&D grants.