A slow but steady start for 5G

With the government granting permission for 5G trials over a period of six months, the bruised telecom sector is certain that the next round of spectrum auction won’t be held anytime before 2022. Telcos had maintained that an early 5G spectrum auction would drain the industry even further, and the latest signal from the government would mean a cushion of several months. Therefore, a relief for at least some players, as 5G spectrum auction would involve big bucks in search of gamechanger applications and services.

However, in the middle of the current Covid-19 crisis when work from home (WFH) and curtailed business activity are all-pervasive, a trial for the next generation high-speed technology may be a challenge for telcos, equipment vendors and the entire ecosystem. Even so, the industry is unlikely to let the opportunity pass as 5G, which is all about internet of things (IOT) and enabling immersive media experience to robotic surgery and self-driving cars, is already live in more than 60 countries.

So, telcos have begun to put their plans together on their priority areas of trial as the government dishes out spectrum across bands to the applicants. Will the first choice of the players be healthcare, education, automotive, gaming or media and entertainment? While it’s clear that initially most telcos would focus on 10 or 15 big cities even after the commercial launch of 5G, the trial segments would be decided based on the international experiences of the partner vendors such as Ericsson, Nokia and Samsung.

Even as healthcare and education often top the list of categories where 5G could be useful, the European 5G observatory lists media and entertainment on top with most 5G trials. Transport, automotive, industry, e-health, virtual reality, smart cities, public safety, energy, agriculture and smart buildings follow in that order. In India, too, the chances are that media and entertainment could be a preferred area. That may give a bigger push to OTT (over the top) media streaming companies, which have already captured our imagination. Stadium-like experience at home is something that the would-be 5G players in India are already talking about. While connected homes and connected cars could be part of the trial, self-driven cars and robotic surgery may come much later in the country, the current discussions suggest.

Besides the futuristic services, India’s likely to bet big-time on fixed wireless access (FWA). To put it simply, FWA is the wireless parallel of fixed broadband service that we have in our homes. With that, wireless internet connectivity will be as robust and fast as fixed broadband. So, the basic vanilla 5G network offering FWA — broadband speed on wireless — could be a game-changer for the country. For that, players have to fiberise their mobile towers efficiently and put up more towers, implying significant investments.

Over the next two weeks, telcos, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea, would identify their on-ground testing locations for non-commercial 5G trials. Along with that, collaborations across sectors ranging from retail to consumer durable would be worked out. There’s plenty of work on the R&D side as well as on what suits Indian consumers.as core 5G teams are formed in companies, there are fears of interference with the telcos’ existing network too. Another challenge is the absence of 5G-ready smartphones in the country. But those things will be ironed out and technology must keep pace with the global developments.

The August 2018 recommendations issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) on spectrum auction had said the world-over, telecom had been recognised as an important tool for socio-economic development for a nation. Stating that telecom is one of the prime support services needed for rapid growth and modernisation of various sectors of the economy, Trai said, “spectrum is one of the most important and crucial ingredients for wireless communication services. With the increasing demand for data services and uptake of data hungry applications, the need for spectrum has been ever increasing.’’

The latest telecom subscriber data for September to December 2020 captures the hunger for high-speed data in India. The total number of internet subscribers increased from 776.45 million at the end of September 2020 to 795.18 million at the end of December 2020, registering a quarterly growth rate of 2.41 per cent. Out of the 795.18 million internet subscribers, the number of wired internet subscribers was 25.54 million, while wireless internet subscribers were at 769.64 million. Also, while the broadband internet subscriber base increased by 2.90 per cent from 726.32 million at the end of September 2020 to 747.41 million at the end of December 2020, the narrowband internet subscriber base declined by 4.72 per cent from 50.14 million in this period.

The Department of Telecom’s permission for 5G trials has come close to three years after the Trai recommendation on 5G spectrum auction. It’s now time for DOT to rationalise the steep reserve price fixed for 5G spectrum to bring India closer to Bharat in due course.