Many telecom experts are of the view that it will take much more time than expected for a complete 5G rollout in India. Experts feel that it may take at least five years more for the industry to be completely ready for a 5G rollout across the country unlike other countries where it is expected to happen in the next couple of years.
While deliberating on the sidelines of the Bengaluru Tech summit in the IT city, experts opined that 5G, once rolled out, will have immense economical potential for the country as it may lead to an export potential of $100 billion of 5G equipment from India. It is also expected that around 40-50 per cent of work around 5G products will be done out of India, particularly in Bengaluru.
“5G rollout is expected to create a completely different ecosystem that will benefit many companies including start up companies working towards it. Since 5G technology is mainly software-centric, unlike 4G technology which is mainly hardware-centric it can be a huge potential for Indian software companies. However the industry should not rush into it but should take their own time to create a complete 5G ecosystem,” said Sanjay Nayak CEO and Managing Director Tejas Networks.
Experts also believed that before a 5G roll out in India it will have to ensured that the infrastructure to support the system is ready. “Only 25-30 per cent of our cell phone towers are fiberized. At the same time, there should be complete regulatory clarity before a 5G rollout. There is also a need to have adequate spectrum, its pricing, roadmap and infrastructure suitable for rolling out 5G and related applications such as IoT, AI etc,” remarked Tilak Raj Dua, the Director-General, Towers and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA).
Some experts also believed that the 5G roll out will create new job opportunities in the telecom sector which is currently reeling under job losses. “The telecom sector has one of the largest number of employees after the Indian railways and most of them are operational people. In order to be 5G ready the whole skill sets of the telecom industry needs to change and people will have to re skill themselves to be job ready for the new 5G technology,” observed Umang Jindal, Head of Network Software and Performance Market Area-India and South East Asia at Ericsson.
Experts also agreed that the industry will take time to be 5G-ready in India as 5G is not an incremental setup, as 4G was, but a different step altogether that will take time to roll out. “There are different principals that will drive 5G ncluding speed, capacity, coverage, density and low latency. The technology can create a significant impact in different sectors such as agriculture, health services, robotics and automation and machine remote control,” pointed out Rajesh Banda, 5G Radio Solutions Manager, Nokia.
Experts also discussed that given the present scenario where many telecom service providers are facing financial stress there should be attempts by them to actively share telecom infrastructure among themselves such as cell towers in order to capitalise on their 5G roll out plan.
