STL: Making India’s 5G dream come true!
Mr Badri Gomatam, Chief Technology Officer at Sterlite Technologies Ltd, gives a bird-eye view of the progress in the 5G roll out and the key role played by the company as a leading integrator of digital networks. He shares with Business Today the optimism of all the stake-holders in bringing the new wireless technology to the country.
Many have argued that India can still take a while before rolling out 5G. What’s your take on that?
We are a little bit behind the curve in rolling out the 5G, but there has been significant progress. There is ample reason to be optimistic, as there is tremendous focus, and a qualitative change in the way the Indian corporate, government and operators are working together, especially on the technology side of it. Telecom companies like Airtel and Jio, are making very strong and fast advancements in the technologies, while the government has also approved 5G trials. There is clear signal that spectrum auction for 5G is being scheduled and that ambiguity is being addressed in a sincere way.
What are the things India need to work on to leverage 5G?
India has all it takes to leverage 5G. It has an excellent ecosystem of local players who can handle every nuanced aspect of 5G deployment, right from software, hardware, optical, semiconductors & chips to large scale network integration capabilities. It has a large and diverse pool of talent and no weight of legacy systems. But, the country still has a few things to work on.
Network modernization is imperative for launching 5G. Legacy networks will not be able to cope up with the upcoming, bandwidth-heavy 5G use cases. There needs to be concentrated efforts towards building open, virtualised and disaggregated networks. The other important aspect is fibre strategy. 5G needs fibre and lots of it to support the kind of data transfer volumes. Our fibre kilometre (fkm) per capita is an issue but it is being addressed. Operators are now spending on fibre in the last five years and its something we are watching very keenly.
India also needs to work on spectrum issues that are still lingering. The government recently announced the spectrum auctions in the first half of 2022. This is a good sign, but the pricing issue still looms. Government can work with private players to find a win-win situation.
What is STL’s role in making India 5G ready or a 5G superpower?
STL has more than a crucial role. It has solid local manufacturing capabilities both on the wireline and wireless side. On the wireline side, we offer Opticonn, an end-to-end optical connectivity solution that allows for faster and efficient roll outs. Opticonn includes some of the path-breaking solutions such as solutions including Stellar, a bend insensitive, backward compatible fibre, and Celesta, an intelligent bonded ribbon cable with a capacity of 6912 fibre.
On the wireless side, we offer solutions that are open, programmable and dissagerated. These solutions are developed through combined efforts of the open community, STL and its partners. Our services and system integration capabilities complement our wireline and wireless capabilities, enabling us to build a truly converged network (i.e. both wireless and wireline). It is wonderful to see that our integrated offerings are getting validated by the government, the corporate and others, who are investing significantly in this area. They are requesting us to develop software, hardware, optical and carry out the systemic integration and roll out of 5G in India.
How do you envisage the future of the industry given the thrust for the ‘Make in India’ campaign and Atmanirbhar Bharat vision?
It’s tremendously exciting because we have the capacity and the ability to grow into a digital hub for the world. The technology sector of India has previously trudged tricky waters through innovation and courage. However, any regulatory incentives and investments on the government side are welcome. We are here as a global technology player and we can definitely say that India is on its way to become an atmanirbhar digital superpower.