“The future of 5G is very important. A collaborative development has to be done. There is a need to encourage doing trials for the use cases which are good for India. This will be a key to 5G success,” the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) secretary Sunil Kumar Gupta said.
Gupta was speaking at a virtual event organised by the PHD Chamber of Commerce & Industry.
India’s telecom sector, in the efforts of enabling policies including more quantum of the spectrum, is set to establish new benchmarks in the next-generation network deployments and service delivery.
The top official further said that the development of India-specific use cases would provide wonders in the days to come.
In a run up to the upcoming 5G spectrum auction, incumbents such as Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea are working on the development of locally-relevant use cases which could bring new revenue streams triggered by technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and Internet of Things (IoT).
In a revised submission to the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), billionaire Mukesh Abani-owned Jio has partnered with Korean Samsung, Finnish Nokia and Swedish Ericsson besides in-house open radio-access network or O-RAN technology. Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea have opted for Nokia and Ericsson.
Telecom carriers use non-standalone (NSA) and standalone (SA) as 5G standards while transitioning from 4G to the next-generation of mobile network.
The government is, however, yet to come up with a definite spectrum auction timeline.
India has only 30 per cent base transceiver stations connected to the fibre, according to the official who said that deploying fibre-based network across the country would not happen in a year’s time but other alternatives such as E and V bands can be optimally utilised.
Gupta added that the government’s thought process is concentrated on a view that different entrepreneurs be given equal opportunity, and development would not rest in the hands of a few big companies.
In 2018, the telecom watchdog has recommended airwaves in the 3300-3600 MHz band for the next-generation technology-based services with a base price of Rs 492-crore(US$6.65) per unit which the telcos feel was too high to bid, and would eventually discourage them.
The official, however, also said that India is at the cusp of multiple disruptive technologies, and the country is set to adopt 5G technology soon.https://telecom.economictimes.indiatimes.com
