5G rollout
India’s telecom story has just got bigger with Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) unveiling plans to introduce indigenously developed 5G technology in the second half of 2021. While this sounds exciting and futuristic, the reality is that India lacks the required infrastructure, even if the spectrum is allotted, to roll out 5G network effectively. Besides, the services would be high priced, at least initially. The device ecosystem is also not matured enough to attract end users. The prices of 5G smartphones start from Rs 55,000, which is substantially higher than the average price of Rs 12,000 for a 4G smartphone. Even in China, which controls 72% of the global 5G smartphone revenues, the average selling price of a 5G smartphone is around Rs 34,000. Also, a seamless ecosystem requires a uniform depth of connectivity across the country. Reliance Jio apparently has a home-grown, end-to-end 5G solution ready for deployment, complete with hardware and technology components. The question remains whether it has done extensive field trials because this technology needs a massive, fool-proof network infrastructure. Of course, Reliance is working with American chipmaker Qualcomm and is fairly confident of its edge in the high stakes game, claiming that Jio users will be able to browse the internet at speeds up to 1Gbps (GigaBytes per second). The initial use cases for 5G are expected to be more for enterprises, rather than retail consumers due to lack of an affordable device ecosystem. However, it remains to be seen how the telecom companies would monetise these 5G business cases from enterprises.
No doubt, once rolled out, the 5G, with faster data speeds and enhanced digital experiences across a host of connected devices, like smartphones, laptops, augmented and virtual reality products and Internet of Things (IoT) solutions, would revolutionise fields like telemedicine and healthcare and push India into a select club of nations — China, United States, South Korea, Australia, Switzerland and Germany — which have developed the technology. Today, India is among leading nations that are digitally well connected. To maintain this lead, policy steps are needed to accelerate the early rollout of 5G, and to make it affordable and available everywhere. Initiatives are also needed to ensure that the underprivileged sections have an affordable smartphone so that they too can benefit from Direct Benefit Transfer into their bank accounts, and actively participate in the digital economy. There has been a growing call worldwide for homegrown telecom networks. Though China leads the world in 5G, there is a reluctance to use Chinese products because of suspicion that Huawei deploys backdoors in its equipment to snoop on data on behalf of its government. The US, UK and Australia have already banned Chinese products in their network gear.
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