India's path to 5G is dotted with many challenges

Kolkata: Picture this: A doctor sitting in his room at a city hospital is performing an ultrasound scan on a person inside an ambulance parked in a remote part of the country, controlling the hand of a paramedic who is with the patient and monitoring the process real time via a video feed.A 5G ecosystem partner of Sweden's Ericsson has developed a connected glove that enables such remote operation of ultrasound scanning machines.Such a technology has immense potential in a country like India. There are also other 5G-based use cases, like drones that can deliver relief to disaster zones and smart agriculture solutions that can help farmers make informed decisions based on weather conditions and market trends.But the country may yet not be ready for these.Commercial launch of such services hinges on fifth-generation, or 5G, communication networks that can offer ultra-high-speed mobile internet nationwide. India is nowhere close to setting up this infrastructure.Today, even having a simple, uninterrupted doctor consultation over a video call is a challenge in many parts of the country, as genuine nationwide video-grade mobile networks remain a myth. The combination of patchy fibre connectivity and inadequate spectrum, compounded by surging data consumption, leads to network congestion.The digital infrastructure inadequacy has come glaringly to the fore as vast swathes of India Inc works from home, relying more than ever before on broadband connectivity amid the continuing Covid-19 crisis. Data from speed-testing platform Ookla show India lags even neighbouring Pakistan and Nepal on broadband speeds and is no match for China, which is ranked No 2 globally on this count. The average mobile download speed in India in August 2020 was about a third of the global average.Experts say the future wave of 5G use cases won’t have any meaningful impact unless India’s fragile digital infrastructure quickly sees a complete makeover and becomes comparable with that in the US, China, South Korea and Japan to support the fast broadband technology.India’s digital infrastructure, say industry trackers, is not 5G-ready by miles. Ambitious targets set by the National Digital Communications Policy 2018 on tower fiberisation and wired broadband penetration have not been met even after two years. Disparate Right of Way rules have only aggravated matters. Public WiFi as a mass broadband driver has not taken off either — the pan-India count of WiFi hotspots at around 100,000 is way behind the targets of 5 million by 2020 and 10 million by 2022. Worse, there is still no clarity on the timing of India’s first 5G spectrum sale, or the bands on offer. Experts say a big infrastructure hurdle that could mire 5G adoption even if the tech arrives soon is patchy fibre connectivity, given that under 30% of India’s telecom towers are linked by fibre, compared with 80-90% in China and the US. A reliable fibre-based network is critical to support 5G data speeds of 10 Gbps, apps such as video-on-demand, Internet of things and smart cities.“At least 70% of mobile towers must initially be fiberised if 5G is to see adoption in India, and one way to speed up matters is by opening up the E and V spectrum bands,” said TV Ramachandran, the president of the Broadband India Forum that represents Google, Microsoft, Facebook and Qualcomm among others. In areas where laying fibre is a challenge, E & V bands can do the job as cost-efficient, wireless fibre to support fast data transmission.Qualcomm president (India & Saarc) Rajen Vagadia said the country must quickly auction “a blend of below 6 Ghz bands and millimetre waves such as 26/28/29 Ghz that can bring extra high capacity to its severely stressed telco networks” to improve existing 4G services and ring in high-quality 5G in future.The government plans to hold a 4G airwaves sale in early-2021, which may be followed by a sale of 5G airwaves later in the year. Telecom market leader Reliance Jio has been pushing the government for an early auction as it wants spectrum to cater to the needs of its expanding user base and replenishing airwave stocks that start expiring from July 2021. Meanwhile, Jio has developed its own 5G technology that can be ready for field deployment next year.Most telecom operators, though, say spectrum prices must plunge for the digital infrastructure woes to ease, as the sector balance sheet — saddled with more than Rs 8.55 lakh crore of debt — has no room to burn cash on a 5G airwave purchase. Lower spectrum prices, they say, would give the companies more headroom to invest in networks.“Trai’s base prices for 4G and 5G airwaves need to be reviewed before the next sale,” said SP Kochhar, the director-general of the Cellular Operators Association of India that represents private telecom firms Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

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