Before the bench of Justice Bansal, the DSLSA' s counsel Saurabh Kansal informed that they wish to withdraw the execution petition in good faith as Chawla has voluntarily agreed to campaign for the committee.
Accordingly, the court allowed the legal authority to withdraw the plea. "The execution petition is dismissed as withdrawn," the bench said.
The DSLSA, on January 21, had approached the court seeking the execution of the order, in which Chawla and two others were directed to deposit the Rs 20 lakh fine.
On January 27, the Delhi High Court had reduced the costs imposed on Juhi Chawla from Rs 20 lakh to Rs 2 lakh after the cine star volunteered to work with DSLSA for the cause of marignalised women and children.
The bench also had expunged the adverse remarks made against Chawla by the single-judge J.R. Midha who had said in his order that the suit by Chawla was frivolous and filed for publicity.
On June 4 last year, Justice J.R. Midha had dismissed her lawsuit against the setting up of 5G wireless networks in the country. Her plea stated the levels of RF radiation are 10 to 100 times greater than the existing levels. It also claimed that the 5G wireless technology can be a potential threat to provoke irreversible and serious effects on humans and it could also permanently damage the earth's ecosystems.
The court had held that the suit filed by Chawla and two others were defective, non-maintainable, and also contained unverified and vexatious assertions and also imposed the fine.
A Division Bench of Justices Vipin Sanghi and Jasmeet Singh reduced the fine after the cine star volunteered to work with Delhi State Legal Services Authority (DSLSA) for the cause of marginalised women and children.
During the last hearing on Tuesday, the bench said it will consider reducing the fine on the condition that she should do some public work. Her celebrity status should be implied for some good of society. She could do a programme for the Delhi Legal Services Authority (DLSA), the court had said.
Notably, in today's order, the bench also expunged the adverse remarks made against Chawla by the single-judge J.R. Midha who had said in his order that the suit by Chawla was frivolous and filed for publicity.
"Having perused the impugned order on record, it appears to us that the plaintiffs, who do not come from a legal background, should not be made to share the blame or consequences for the manner in which the suit and applications were drafted. The single-judge was also disturbed by the fact that the link of the hearing was circulated to the public at large which led to the proceedings getting disrupted," the court said in the order.
The court's observation was in the light of the last year's hearing of Chawla's suit, which was disturbed by unknown persons who were singing Bollywood songs of films in which she had acted. The court had directed the Delhi Police to identify the people and proceed against them under the law.
On June 4 last year, Justice J.R. Midha had dismissed her lawsuit against the setting up of 5G wireless networks in the country. Her plea stated the levels of RF radiation are 10 to 100 times greater than the existing levels. It also claimed that the 5G wireless technology can be a potential threat to provoke irreversible and serious effects on humans and it could also permanently damage the earth's ecosystems.
The court had held that the suit filed by Chawla and two others were defective, non-maintainable, and also contained unverified and vexatious assertions and also imposed the fine.
Hence, it allowed Chawla to carry on with her pursuit against 5G before an appropriate forum.
On January 21, the DSLSA approached the court seeking the execution of the order, in which Chawla and two others were directed to deposit Rs 20 lakh fine.
The number of smartphone subscriptions is expected to be 810 million at the end of 2021 and is projected to grow at a CAGR of 7 per cent, reaching over 1.2 billion by 2027 in the country, according to the mobility report by Swedish telecommunication giant Ericsson.
The average traffic per smartphone in the India region is the second-highest globally and is projected to grow to around 50GB per month in 2027.
"Total mobile data traffic in India has grown from 9.4 EB (exabyte) per month in 2020 to 12 EB per month in 2021 and is projected to increase by more than 4 times to reach 49EB per month in 2027," the report projected.
According to Nitin Bansal, Head of Ericsson India and Head of Network Solutions for South east Asia, Oceania and India, Ericsson, 5G will serve as a socio-economic multiplier for the country.
"We are preparing the communication service providers for a seamless introduction of 5G in the country based on our global deployment experience , our innovative and competitive 5G portfolio as well as the 5G trials we are doing with Indian operators to showcase the possibilities with 5G," Bansal said in a statement.
In the India region, 4G is expected to remain the dominant technology in 2027, however the 4G subscriptions are forecast to drop from 790 million in 2021 to 710 million in 2027, showing an annual average decline of 2 per cent.
The reliance on mobile networks to stay connected and work from home has contributed to the average traffic per smartphone increasing to 18.4GB per month in 2021, up from 16.1GB per month in 2020.
The average traffic per smartphone in the India region is the second-highest globally and is projected to grow to around 50GB per month in 2027, the report mentioned.
Ericsson recently carried out 5G trials with Airtel and Vi, where it demonstrated enhanced mobile broadband and Fixed Wireless Access (FWA) use cases with 5G.
Globally, there has been almost 300-fold increase in mobile data traffic since 2011, the report noted.
Further, both domestic and global companies are set to benefit from the non-participation of Chinese majors Huawei and ZTE in the 5G trials.
Global equipment majors such as Ericsson are not the only ones in the game. Even domestic players have risen up to the occasion and are now actively pursuing tie ups along with growing their technical prowess.
Tech Mahindra, Sterlite Technologies Ltd and state-run ITI Ltd are among the Indian companies which have come up with 5G expertise.
The latest announcement of Tata Sons' subsidiary Panatone Finvest acquiring controlling stake in telecom equipment maker Tejas Networks would toughen the competition.
Panatone Finvest will buy a 43.3 per cent stake in Tejas Networks for Rs 1,850 crore and along with other Tata Group companies, Panatone would make a public announcement to acquire up to another 26 per cent stake in Tejas.
In a regulatory filing, Tejas said that it sees a very large opportunity in the telecom sector both in India and global markets with the new cycle of investments in 5G and fiber-based broadband rollouts.
In June, telecom giant Reliance's Jio partnered with US chipset maker Qualcomm to manufacture critical equipment for the 5G ecosystem in India.
Jio has also indigenously developed 5G Radio integrated with Jio's 5G core network and is in its development of in-house Massive MIMO and indoor 5G small cells is in advanced stages.
Tech Mahindra is also understood to be going with robust plans in terms of 5G technology.
The company recently reported strong earnings for the first quarter of FY22 and analysts are of the view that with the government's plan to stick to India-made 5G rollout, the company is expected the gain a significant portion of that "5G tech" pie.
As several partnerships in the telecom space have been announced, last month Bharti Airtel and Tata Consultancy Services announced partnership for the implementation of 5G solutions, starting pilot from January 2022.
TCS will implement the 5G solutions it has developed for Airtel. Tata Group has developed 5G solutions using Open-Radio Access Network (O-RAN), a part of telecommunication architecture.
Earlier this year, Bharti Airtel announced that it has become the first telecom service provider in the country to successfully demonstrate and orchestrate live 5G service. The demonstration took place in Hyderabad.
Last year, Bharti Airtel extended its multi-year contract with Ericsson for deploying 5G-ready radio network, strengthening their long-standing partnership.
Vodafone Idea in June announced to collaborate with Cisco to improve its existing 4G network and, in the future, 5G use cases for offering better quality experience for its customers.
The telco said that it would work with Cisco to design and build a cost-efficient network architecture to drive greater speed to market as it taps opportunities in 4G, 5G, Cloud, and IoT.
Finnish mobile and equipment maker Nokia may to be seen in India's much awaited 5G scenario.
Sector experts are of the view that the Rs 12,195 crore production linked incentive scheme would also be a major boost for the sector and more players may pitch in to manufacture equipment and network devices in India.
As per the government, the scheme envisages to create global champions out of India who have the potential to grow in size and scale, using cutting edge technology and thereby, penetrate the global value chains. Telecom products play an important role in the larger vision of "Digital India".
This whole target of domestic manufacturing gained traction last year amid the border standoff with China.
Amid the standoff and concerns over security, the government decided to keep Chinese players, some of which are giants in this very segment, out of the 5G trials in India.
The much-anticipated 5G trials have begun and the Department of Telecommunications granted permission to Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea Ltd on May 27, 2021 and Mahanagar Telephone Nigam Limited on June 23, 2021 for conducting 5G Technology trials with a validity period of six months.
As India takes strides in terms of manufacturing and technology, it seems it may turn self-sufficient and even a global leader in terms of 5G technology with several major global companies coming in and home-grown players too joining the bus.
Huawei made a statement on Twitter, saying that the Australian government had made the move despite the Chinese firm "safely and securely" delivering wireless technology in the country for nearly 15 years.
"We have been informed by the govt that Huawei and ZTE have been banned from providing 5G technology to Australia. This is a extremely disappointing result for consumers. Huawei is a world leader in 5G. Has safely and securely delivered wireless technology in Australia for close to 15 yrs," it said.
Following the development, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lu Kang urged Australia to abandon its ideological bias to create a healthy environment that supports fair cooperation for Chinese companies in the country.
Huawei is the second-largest seller of mobile phones worldwide, behind South Korea's Samsung and ahead of the US' Apple. While ZTE is a major global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions based in China's Shenzhen.
According to Efe news, Australian authorities said the two firms had been kept out owing to their dependence on the Chinese government.
"The government considers that the involvement of vendors who are likely to be subject to extrajudicial directions from a foreign government that conflict with Australian law, may risk failure by the carrier to adequately protect a 5G network from unauthorized access or interference," according to an official statement by Australia, highlighting that it felt both Chinese firms could pose national security threats.
The statement however, did not mention China or Huawei by name.
Lu said that China was deeply concerned by Australia's decision and Beijing always encouraged Chinese firms to obey international standards and local laws while carrying out economic activities abroad.
Huawei has repeatedly rejected the security concerns, insisting that it is "a private company, owned by our employees with no other shareholders".
Australia's relationship with China has come under considerable strain in the past 18 months as Canberra's focus on Beijing's influence in domestic affairs has increased, a report in the Guardian said.
In March 2017, Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop gave a speech in Singapore in which she warned China that "democracy and democratic institutions are essential for nations if they are to reach their economic potential".
"India has much to gain from rising to the 5G challenge and a tremendous opportunity to accelerate its own ambitions. It can learn from the experiences of early leaders to establish a cohesive 5G roadmap that can help drive the Digital India strategy and enable the country to distinguish itself as a challenger in shaping 5G technologies," he said.
The minister also released a global benchmark analysis of 5G policies and initiatives done by Broadband India Forum and Policy Impact Partners.
"The government of India has a unique opportunity to leverage the power of 5G to drive forward the Digital India agenda, accelerating economic growth and societal development. Policies and regulation must focus on incentivising a quantum change in investment and accelerating the deployment and take up of innovative 5G services," Sinha added.
The Global Benchmark Analysis, carried out by Policy Impact Partners, is a comparative overview of the 5G policies and market development initiatives promoted by the five countries considered to be global leaders in 5G: China, Japan, South Korea (Republic of Korea), the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Justice J.R. Midha held that the suit filed by Chawla and two others was defective, non-maintainable, and also contained unverified and vexatious assertions.
The High Court also expressed dissatisfaction at Chawla sharing the link of virtual hearing on her social media account. During the hearing of Chawla's suit, unknown persons repeatedly disturbed by singing Bollywood songs of films in which she had acted. The court directed the Delhi Police to identify these persons and proceed against them under the law.
Observing that Chawla did not approach any of the 33 defendants named in her suit and instead sought a declaration from the court, the bench said this declaration cannot be allowed under the law. It also said Chawla did not deposit the court fees for her suit and directed her to pay Rs 1.95 lakh within one week.
On June 2, the High Court had questioned Chawla as to why she had directly filed a suit against setting up of 5G wireless networks without making any representation to the department concerned in the government, and insisted the plaintiffs, Chawla and two others, should have gone to the government first.
After hearing the arguments in the matter, the court reserved its order.
The plea filed by Chawla, Veeresh Malik and Teena Vachani claimed that 5G wireless technology can be a potential threat to provoke irreversible and serious effects on humans and it could also permanently damage to the earth's ecosystems.
The plea contended that to levels of RF radiation that are 10x to 100x times greater than the existing levels, and no living species on the planet would be able to survive round the clock exposure.
The multidisciplinary team of experts at the 1,300 square feet lab will accompany and support organisations in their exploration of the latest use cases; experiencing new perspectives on how 5G is transforming their industry; and in helping them to build, monetise, and strategise what 5G brings next for their business, the company said in a statement.
"The 5G lab will support our global clients and cater to four main industry categories namely Smart Factory, Smart Utilities, Smart City and Smart Retail to enhance the relevance of the Lab's use cases in the multisectoral paradigm," said Ashwin Yardi, CEO–India at Capgemini and member of the Group Executive Committee.
The news comes as the government has reportedly started the process of conducting 5G trials by allotting 5G spectrum to telecom service providers for trials for six months.
Ericsson said it has deployed its ‘Industry Connect' solution at the 5G lab, which is a plug and play, pre-packaged and pre-integrated dedicated network product with Ericsson pre-selected components.
In the 5G lab, it will enable enterprises across different industry verticals like health, safety, manufacturing test out 5G use cases that can be applied by the industry.
"We are delighted to collaborate with Capgemini to set up this 5G Lab in India to test potential 5G use cases for enterprises as the country prepares to launch 5G," said Nadine Allen, Head of Enterprise Business, Ericsson South East Asia, Oceania and India.
The radio component revenue reached an all-time high in 2020 and strong growth will continue, according to latest research from Strategy Analytics.
The radio components include baseband processors, RF transceivers, power amplifiers, RF filters, switches, antenna tuners, drain modulators, tuners, and other RF front-end components.
"Despite the pandemic, RF component revenue, including baseband processors and the RF front-end (RFFE), reached an all-time high in 2020, and we predict that the cellular radio component market will grow 8 percent per year through 2025," said Christopher Taylor, Director of RF and Wireless Components at Strategy Analytics.
In the wake of stagnating device shipment growth and to help counter increasing radio complexity with 5G, "suppliers of RFFE component have continued to develop system-in-package modules with more capabilities, allowing companies to capture more RFFE content per design-win while making design and assembly of mobile phones easier for OEMs," he explained.
The on-going semiconductor shortages are likely to persist through 2022, validating strong underlying demand.
"However, mobile phone OEMs face supply constraints that could keep them from reaching full upside device sales potential this year," said Sravan Kundojjala, Associate Director, Handset Component Technologies.
Semiconductor foundries including TSMC, UMC, GlobalFoundries, SMIC, Samsung Foundry and compound semiconductor foundries have responded with efforts to increase capacity as quickly as possible.
Strategy Analytics predicts that "robust demand for both sub-6 and mmWave 5G RF components along with new 5G opportunities beyond smartphones will drive significant cellular radio component growth over the next few years," Kundojjala said.
In a joint statement on Friday, the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) and the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) expressed their concern regarding false rumours connecting 5G technology with the spread of Covid-19.
The industry bodies said that they have come across multiple messages on social media platforms as well as reports in a few regional media allegedly claiming '5G spectrum trials' as the probable cause of rising cases of Covid-19.
"We would like to clarify that these rumours are absolutely false. We urge people not to fall for such baseless misinformation. Several countries in the world have already rolled out 5G networks and people are using these services safely," COAI Director General S.P. Kochhar said.
Even the World Health Organisation has clarified that there is no correlation between 5G technology and Covid-19, he said.
"We have shared our concerns with the Department of Telecommunications and have apprised them of the situation. We appeal fellow citizens to beware of these fake messages. Together we can fight this menace of misinformation," Kochhar added.
TAIPA Director General Tilak Raj Dua said: "Such misleading campaigns, if not brought under control immediately, may significantly impact the telecom operations and hence the connectivity at large and deprive the general public and government authorities from getting uninterrupted telecom services at this crucial juncture."
The COAI and TAIPA added that there are no 5G trials in the country. No 5G towers have been installed as yet. Telecom services are a lifeline for the nation, especially in the current times, they said.
In fact, these networks are keeping people safe by enabling work from home, online classes, e-health and online doctor consultations among others. Hundreds of millions of people depend on these networks to access real time information when they need it the most, the statement added.
As 5G networks can handle heavy data volume with little latency, the telecom operator has focused on creating augmented and virtual reality videos to offer "killer content" available on 5G smartphones.
As part of its efforts, LG Uplus has opened its AR studio in Seoul and plans to open a second one later in 2019.
LG Uplus said it has signed a deal with US start-up 8i, which creates 360-degree holograms, to make 3-D videos simultaneously captured from cameras with 4K resolution, which refer to new standards for high definition resolution for displays.
The company said it aims to double the number of AR content to 1,500 by the end of 2019, including K-pop dance, home training and sports videos, to cater to varied consumer needs.
The company expressed the hope that the high-quality entertainment content will draw more users to its 5G service as it plans to build 80,000 5G base stations nationwide by the end of 2019.
Modi, who is in Osaka, Japan to attend the G20 Summit, outlined that India is going to be a billion users of this technology and in that sense India is the second largest market in the world.
During the meeting on the sidelines of the G20 Summit, the two leaders discussed the technical and business opportunities that 5G provides for cooperation between India and the US.
"The way India moves or the way whatever choices India makes will essentially determine the way the global trend will go. And therefore the Prime Minister said it is important that we collaborate. India and the US in this regard to see how we can leverage this, the billion Indian users, India's capacity in technological development in start-up and design and silicon valley and its role in developing 5G technology for mutual benefit," Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale briefing media after the talks.
President Trump welcomed the idea and spoke about the work that American companies are now doing in 5G, Foreign Secretary said.
Trump specifically referred to Silicon Valley and said that since he had taken over as the President of US he has focused on this area, on developing America's capabilities in technology, he said.
"President Trump said that he look forward to working with us and it was again decided to continue the conversation through meetings at technical level as well as at the level of the Secretaries of State and External Affairs Minister on our side and the technical ministers on both side," Gokhale said.
"So, essentially the Prime Minister's real focus was on Make in India and the potential that this huge technology has in that goal or objective," he said.
Earlier, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday speaking at India Policy' speech in New Delhi suggested that Japan, America and India can collaborate on 5G, the fifth generation cellular network technology that provides broadband access.
The US has banned Huawei, the world's leader in telecom equipment and the number two smartphone producer, over concerns of security and Washington has been pressuring other countries to restrict the operations of the Chinese telecom firm.
India, however, is yet to take a call on whether it intends to place curbs on Huawei or allow the Chinese telecom giant to participate in the upcoming 5G trials, that are scheduled to commence in 100 days.
The US has been pressurising India to ban the Chinese company from its 5G development and deployment on the back of security concerns of Chinese surveillance on these networks.
The US had banned Huawei's products on May 21 and also barred US companies from supplying software and components to the Chinese company. Meanwhile, Australia and New Zealand have also banned Huawei from participating in their 5G trials.
Huawei has urged India to make an "informed and independent decision" on permitting its 5G trials in the country as the Chinese telecom giant reeled under pressure following the US ban.
Huawei Monday said it is ready to sign "no back door" agreement with the Indian government to discourage espionage, and other companies should also follow suit.
Huawei's business engagement in India is under scrutiny by the government after the US restricted hardware as well as software supplies to it.
The telecom department had come up with security guidelines in 2011 that mandated telecom operators to install certified equipment and devices in their network to ensure they are free from malicious softwares or bug.
"In partnership with Samsung Networks, Jio has built the world's largest greenfield and all IP based 4G LTE network, which supports over 340 million LTE subscribers as of August 2019," Jio said in a statement.
At the event, the two companies presented new business opportunities using "5G NSA" mode, with advanced 4G LTE and 5G technology used in combination as a dual-connected mode network, the company said, adding that these will demonstrate how innovations from the latest technology can benefit consumers, enterprises and the society.
Mathew Oommen, President of Reliance Jio Infocomm said: "The unprecedented data growth and the mobile internet adoption and revolution that Jio brought to India has fundamentally changed the life of every Indian. Jio, working closely with key partners like Samsung will ensure that we continue to help India leapfrog traditional technologies by advancing the existing 4G all-IP infrastructure and leverage the end-to-end fiber, 5G, and IoT ecosystems towards a digital infrastructure platform."
Having superior LTE networks is a key asset for operators in moving towards the 5G era, and Jio has reached that compelling competency, said Paul Kyungwhoon Cheun, Executive Vice President and Head of Networks Business at Samsung Electronics, adding that Samsung and Jio will continue to join forces in bringing "next generation innovation" across the country.
The trial will feature solutions from Samsung Networks' 5G product portfolio, including its 3.5GHz solution for 5G Massive MIMO Unit (MMU), its 28GHz Access Unit (AU) and CPE device, its virtualized radio access (vRAN) and core, and 5G mobile devices. The demonstrations would include "virtual classroom" and "Massive Full High-Definition (HD) Content Streaming", the statement said.
`5G' refers to the fifth genertaion cellular network technology.
"We should adopt 5G technology soon as it will inter- connect devices and accelerate data flow," Kant said at the `Magnificent Madhya Pradesh' investor summit here.
"A debate is underway on 5G technology. I am of the view that there is a need to develop some segments of it with Indian technology for taking the nation forward," he added.
The Internet data in India is too cheap compared to other countries and consumption is huge, he said.
Data consumption has seen a steep rise in the last three years, Kant added.
The 5G technology will increase data flow and make people's life easier, he said.
Underlining the importance of machine learning and artificial intelligence, the NITI Aayog CEO said the government should make special efforts to increase the number of data specialists and data scientists.
On the Internet users' right over personal data, Kant said, "The user should have the right over data but some data are such that there is no harm in their sharing."
But some kind of data, such as that related to people's health, should stay inside the country, he said.