Industrial Automation Magazine India

5G in India: Prospects & Problems

Published on : Saturday 12-10-2019

The Government of India, through the DoT and Digital India initiatives, is leading the charge towards 5G. It has declared that India must not only be among the first countries to implement 5G, but also be a leader amongst nations that design 5G systems for worldwide use.
 
For this purpose, it has set up a high-powered committee to seed R&D as a public-private effort. It has nominated 6 IITs and created a new entity called CeWIT (Centre of Excellence in Wireless Technology) that would split up the research among themselves, create standards-based products and software that would be saleable across the world, making India a pioneer in 5G.

The labs are racing to complete the targets that run till late 2019. A major test bed is being created in which all new products can be tested. All private firms, especially startups, are invited to participate and accelerate the development.

Current progress
Different companies are also creating their own Proof-of-Concept systems, and early this year, Airtel succeeded in sending 5G signals for a short distance in its own test platform. Siemens and Ericsson are also active in the design and collaborate with DoT, IITs, etc.

However, the world leader in 5G design – Huawei – is stuck in controversies created by the US government, saying the company is a security risk and no one should associate with it. Huawei had a lot of investment and R&D planned for India in 5G but it is now in a limbo, with the Indian government still not accepting the company into the 5G community.

DoT has still not allotted the test frequencies, free on trial basis, for test bed-based tests, already due to commence. Even if they allot frequencies today, it will take 6 months to adapt these and get the system ready for real-world testing. This means we are already one year behind other countries

Issues and problems

The TRAI has gone ahead and announced spectrum licensing fees that are minimum 5 times that levied by the lowest-price country. And 54 times what Germany levies for 5G spectrum. Singapore has waived all fees (licensing, spectrum, etc) in order to encourage fast development and deployment.

The Telcos have to, in addition, substantially enhance and make uniform their current networks and make them uniformly broadband and fully IP-based. This involves substantial investment in money, time and technology. Only the new Telco Jio has got a very good 4G network that needs little work and investment to become 5G.

The finances of the Telcos are in bad shape and it is doubtful if they can gather the resources for spectrum fees and network rollout. It looks doubtful if they can at all rollout anything before end 2020 or 2021.

Operational issues
A lot of 5G spectrum would cater to video-fast, interactive. However, customers are now used to free video or very low-priced video on demand. India has both the highest data consumption (mostly video on cheap smartphones by young people looking for cheap entertainment) and the lowest tariff in the world. These two are an oxymoron. Companies are unable to monetise their investment in technology to provide faster, better and cheaper technology. 5G will take this to a higher level, but with no commensurate benefits.

A lot of the highly-touted benefits of 5G do not apply to India:
•    Self-driving and connected cars – our roads in their present shape can never accommodate this, leave alone our drivers.
•    Massive IIoT: A major part of this pertains to Smart Cities. Presently, most of the money allotted to various state governments and local bodies is untouched. The expense has been in storm water drains, bio-waste disposal, etc. Nobody has a massive Smart Power plan or Smart Water Grid in the works. Yes, Industrial IoT will get a boost but frankly, 4G can do the job as well. Rural telemedicine is but a dream- having covered 0.01% of villages in 15 years.
•    VR & AR: Great for entertainment and training. Who will provide the content? Who will create the infrastructure? And who will pay for the content?

What 5G will bring to advanced countries
5G will enable instantaneous connectivity to billions of devices, the Internet of Things (IoT) and a truly connected world.

There are three major categories of use case for 5G:
•    Massive machine to machine communications – also called the Internet of Things (IoT) that involves connecting billions of devices without human intervention at a scale not seen before. This has the potential to revolutionise modern industrial processes and applications including agriculture, manufacturing and business communications.
•    Ultra-reliable low latency communications – mission critical including real-time control of devices, industrial robotics, vehicle to vehicle communications and safety systems, autonomous driving and safer transport networks. Low latency communications also opens up a new world where remote medical care, procedures, and treatment are all possible.
•    Enhanced mobile broadband – providing significantly faster data speeds and greater capacity keeping the world connected. New applications will include fixed wireless internet access for homes, outdoor broadcast applications without the need for broadcast vans, and greater connectivity for people on the move.

For communities, 5G will enable the connection of billions of devices for our smart cities, smart schools and smart homes, smart and safer vehicles, enhance health care and education, and provide a safer and more efficient place to live.

For businesses and industry, 5G and IoT will provide a wealth of data allowing them to gain insights into their operations like never before. Businesses will operate and make key decisions driven by data, innovate in agriculture, smart farms and manufacturing, paving the way for cost savings, better customer experience and long term growth.

New and emerging technologies such as virtual and augmented reality will be accessible by everyone. Virtual reality provides connected experiences that were not possible before. With 5G and VR you will be able to travel to your favourite city, watch a live football match with the feeling of being at the ground, or even be able to inspect real estate and walk through a new home all from the comfort of your couch.

5G will keep us connected in tomorrow’s smart cities, smart homes and smart schools, and enable opportunities that we haven’t even thought of yet.

Please note that these are not what Indians would get anytime soon. This is only to tell you of the potential that 5G has.

Any possible benefits to India in near future?
Clean and fast data access will make cloud computing and platform/software/application-as-a-service a reality, at an affordable price. Companies can vastly benefit from this plus big data, analytics, etc., without paying a lot of money.

Huge opportunities for start-ups readying Apps and Services for 5G for India and the world.

100% rural broadband coverage possible with a combination of LEOs being launched with 5G.

End-users will benefit from large applications of AI in their dealings with entities-banks, finance, education etc. Also experience for the first time what people in other countries take for granted- no waiting for download, no buffering, full data security etc. 5G will ensure high reliability connections that are fast and secure.

As for the big touted benefits that others will enjoy, only time will tell: if, when and whether we will get these services. 5G is only an enabler. Smart cities will need knowledgeable administrators. If they utilise IT and communications, 5G will be there to help. Same for education. VR and AR can take education to a much higher level, making a rural schoolchild the equal of a city schoolchild. Who will plan, fund and execute this? Only 0.01% of teachers have heard of VR.

Why this pessimism?

3G auctions almost sucked the blood out of Telcos. Scandals on 2G and 3G ensured the departure of some Telcos.

4G started five years after the licenses were given out. We were not prepared, technology-wise and funding wise. The only new Telco that started without legacy went ahead and covered the country quickly. Others, no. We still have less than 50% 4G coverage. And, 4G is the foundation for 5G.

Even a mature technology like FTTH (fibre to the home), that is ideal for wired 5G has not taken off still in India. Small cells and indoor coverage that will dramatically reduce the misery of dropped calls have not taken off. Reason: no money; lack of fire in the belly.

5G works optimally with core networks in fibre that has substantial bandwidth. Indian core networks are pretty weak, and fibre connectivity for mobile stands at 45%.

The estimated investment for India over next 5 years is USD 50 billion, apart from license and spectrum fees. Add that, this becomes USD 90 billion. No Indian entity/entities will be capable of funding this. Worse, we have not created any infrastructure for the 5G hardware, almost all of it to be imported – a value of USD 40 billion. We are missing the bus again: total lack of leadership and initiative.

(The article is based on a presentation made by the author recently at the MIT Entrepreneurs Forum)

K V Seshasayee, well known in the fields of IT, Telecom and Media, has over a 40-year career span with different companies including Ashok Leyland, DRDO, Digicon, Hinduja Group and Quippo/Viom. He was Global CTO for the Hinduja Group for 8 years. He has been Chairman/Director in several companies in India and abroad and has worked closely with Thai, US, Singapore, Hong Kong, Japan and UK companies in IT & Telecom.