“There is long way to go, and a lot of investment is required. The government should play a part in terms of building the infrastructure; a lot of capital is available in global market.”
Future Challenges Gaurav Basra,
must give a part of that back to digital sector as their return on investment through some concessions on the taxes and levies. We are working closely with ADB on that. The VIP Korea report showed that for every 10% increase in Internet traffic, there is 3.3% increase in GDP growth rate. That’s what we need! Let’s build on the NDCP. That’s a great foundation on which the future can be better, whether it is for connectivity, or security, or growth.
Gupta asked,“When we start talking about the future, what are the challenges involved in rolling out 5G networks?”
Gaurav Basra said that from a 5G perspective, we need to understand the user perspective. 5G networks will have a role to play in mission-critical apps and entities, such as enterprises, defence, power grid etc. Mission-critical apps will run over 5G networks. Ultra-low latency parameters are extremely important from an application perspective. These are some of the changes in terms of the user aspect. 5G will largely be a small cell architecture. More sites will be required for a continuous coverage of the 5G network.
Imagine, there are 5,000 towers for a network today. You have to build a network two to three times that size for 5G network. There are things like site acquisition, getting the power for every base station, etc. So, challenges are huge for building a 5G network infrastructure. It will probably start as a private network, for factories, campuses etc. That will be easier to build. Or, it could be at the extreme traffic hotspots. Over there, upgrading the existing networks to 5G could be easier. This could be the way to start. Fabrication will be key. Each 5G site will require a good 5G connection. There will also be multilocation of sites.
Gupta inquired about when it comes to investment, what the benefits for the society will be. Do we require a new governance?
Ajit Ranade said that 5G is a cutting-edge technology, and we want to assume leadership. There are three main challenges. The same players are supposed to take the lead. Let us also acknowledge that there is a stress. You need to make sure this is viable. For 100MHz, you will need Rs. 50,000 crores. Second, we need to substantially increase the fabrication across the country, and that has its own challenges. Third, there is a regulation challenge, as it is a new phenomenon. What is the cyber security, for instance? The data privacy bill is currently in the Parliament. Data is the new oil, but there should some thoughts around data sovereignty. It is a new territory. Cyber security, data privacy, data sovereignty, monetization of data, etc., are some challenges that need to be looked at.
The impact will be huge. We haven’t fully understood the impact of telecom upon our lives. As 5G is now upon us, it is qualitatively different as it goes into areas such as IoT. Andhra Pradesh has a vision it will be the hub of IoT for the entire state. We are also talking about Industry 4.0, and that’s talking about AI/ML, robotics, man-machine interface, and skills requirements. Industry 4.0 will also bring on University 2.0! The kind of skills needed for Industry 4.0 are completely different. There will be changes in the curriculum, point of delivery, etc. Just investment in the education alone will lead to lot of growth. The growth of GDP will also ride a lot on Industry 4.0, which, in turn, is related to the telecom evolution into 5G.
The impact of broadband and connectivity will be huge on livelihood. We haven’t reached anywhere close to this saturation. Investments in telecom and returns, in terms of productivity are there to stay for a long time. The share of GDP in the digital economy today is somewhere around 10%. We need to quadruple. The kinds of returns are huge.
Spectrum Requirements
Gupta added, “We have talked about 5G and fabrication. What kind of models should be looked at for 5G spectrum?”
TVRamachandran said that spectrum is the base requirement of 5G. You also need fibre. Here, there is lot of work to do. NDPC 2018 has clearly referred to the