“5G small cells can be deployed over street light hardware. This infrastructure can be built for 5G or on any other requirement, like road and power.”
Dr Anand Agarwal,
vertical cross program, and close collaboration between the university and public companies. The goal of the program is to have a technology broadly compliant with 3GPP standards.
The NASA digital communication policy explicitly talks about delivering high-speed IoT and machine-tomachine communication by 5G. The policy framework is in place to ensure that 5G comes in. Spectrum of guidelines for 5G trials have been issued. We have all the things in place.
There are only 30% of towers, which are connected to fiber. Guidelines have been issued. They have to percolate down to the state level, and districts have to understand the importance of these guidelines. We also need to promote the infrastructure sharing, active and passive. We have all the pieces in place. The government is ready to work with the stakeholders.
People also talk about who will make investments in 5G. Making investments is a business decision. There are no reasons why people will not invest money. There have been investments in the telecom space. Many other players are interested in making investments. They will happen when there is a regulatory certainty that there is deliberate push from the government.
From a technology angle, we need to bring in 5G. We need to take all the policy decisions and inputs, and have detailed implementation of 5G. Obviously, we have to create policies that are attractive enough for people to invest. I see a great future for 5G in India. I see also a great future of the overall ICT technologies. We have been able to build a huge amount of software and services on top of that. These things are going to play out much more aggressively.
In the next era of 5G, we will continue to build. In an article, I had said that we should go to protocol approach similar to what we have done on the Internet. It’s an open architecture. We need to adopt that in many verticals, like e-commerce. That will be an inclusive kind of protocol-based platform. Once that happens, India will have created another landmark and paradigm shift into these apps. We will be able to establish a great ecosystem.
Now, there is talk about domestic manufacturing. As a strategy, that is very important, and it will also happen. It has happened in the mobile handset space. It will happen in electronics manufacturing in general, and telecom equipment manufacturer in particular.
Focus on Spectrum
Gupta thanked Dr Sharma, adding that this was a comprehensive picture of the issues and the transformational impact. How it is going to affect the different kinds of verticals, the ecology required and the governance framework, etc.
He asked Akhil Gupta that the big elephant in the room is the spectrum. right. Dr. Sharma alluded to the spectrum and so on. Now, what are the industry’s expectations and do you think they are being met?
Akhil Gupta, Chairman, Bharti Infratel & ViceChairman, Bharti Enterprise, first congratulated TRAI chairman for the 10th anniversary of Aadhar. He said that it is among the biggest transformations that the country has seen over the last 25 years. There has been the IT revolution, the telecom revolution, etc. This is a feather in your cap that will always shine.
One point raised was about the use cases. The industry has always been saying that there are no use cases. You need a product on digital communication policy and certain targets for penetration of Internet and broadband. There is a huge opportunity in front of us. However, spectrum is a big impediment. The current