Parliamentary Panel report on 5G in India

Topics Covered: Awareness in the fields of IT, Space, Computers, robotics, nano-technology, bio-technology and issues relating to intellectual property rights.

Parliamentary Panel report on 5G in India:

Key findings by the panel:

Despite the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) having submitted a report on the steps to make India 5G ready as early as August 2018, there was very little progress on the ground.
Challenges: Lack of various approvals around spectrum such as uncertainty around auctions, high reserve price of spectrum, inadequate and poor development of test cases, low reach of optical fibre across India, and deficient back-haul capacity.

What needs to be done?

The country must expedite its approvals process and sort out issues such as spectrum auction, back-haul capacity, price and user test cases to catch up with other countries which have taken a lead in 5G network deployment.
The DoT should reach an understanding with the Department of Space and Ministry of Defence at the earliest to earmark the allocation of spectrum waves.

What is 5G?

5G is the next generation of mobile broadband that will eventually replace, or at least augment 4G LTE connection.
5G offers exponentially faster download and upload speeds.
5G will deliver multi-Gbps peak rates, ultra-low latency, massive capacity, and a more uniform user experience.

Where does India stand in the 5G technology race?

All the three private telecom players, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Bharti Airtel and Vi have been urging the DoT to lay out a clear road map of spectrum allocation and 5G frequency bands, so that they would be able to plan the roll out of their services accordingly.

One big hurdle, however, is the lack of flow of cash and adequate capital with at least two of the three players, namely Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.
On the other hand, Reliance Jio plans to launch an indigenously built 5G network for the country as early as the second half of this year.

What is the global progress on 5G?

More than governments, global telecom companies have started building 5G networks and rolling it out to their customers on a trial basis. In countries like the US, companies such as AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon have taken the lead when it comes to rolling out commercial 5G for their users.

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