India’s 5G programme is now well underway, even if its spectrum auctions are not, as Bharti Airtel and Tata Group join forces to roll out a trial 5G network across the country. Airtel has become the second Indian operator after Reliance Jio to launch 5G trials after the government gave the go-ahead in May 2021. The government has excluded Huawei and ZTE from 5G deployments, which gives a cue to an important subtext to these trials – to promote the country’s ‘Made in India’ campaign, centered around Open RAN as a way into mobile network infrastructure, including 5G, for emerging vendors. More importantly, Indian authorities see the opportunity to turn the country into a manufacturing hub for affordable O-RAN equipment…