5G for a Better Tomorrow

P. Balaji, Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer, Vodafone Idea spoke on 5G for a better tomorrow at the recently held 21^st edition of Voice&Data Telecom Leadership Forum.

In his leaders keynote address Balaji said, “We are at the cusp of 5G rollouts in the country. Therefore, it is important that we deliberate on this very important technology evolution to make it a success in India. Frankly, 5G is more than a technology revolution. It is a catalyst for collaboration, and innovation across sectors and players, that will change the lives of citizens and enterprises. “India is already experimenting and testing 5G. I believe this is necessary to build a strong foundation for 5G and to drive Digital India.”

According to Balaji, “For 5G to be a success, there is a need for facilitation in several areas, including the development of India specific use cases for enterprises and consumers. Enabling government policies around spectrum to drive network investments, backhaul and devices. Industry players supported by the government have taken some concrete steps towards the path of 5G rollout in the last one year.”

Vodafone idea's 5G strategy has been centred around collaboration and partnership. “We believe 5G will be a success only if all ecosystem players come together to bring use cases of relevance to consumers and enterprises,” was Balaji’s assertion.

“During the 5G trials in Pune, and Gandhinagar, VI brought together technology leaders, domain experts, start-ups to curate a wide range of use cases in areas such as public safety, connected health services, connected schools, smart cities, smart construction and connected workers, drone based surveillance, sports in terms of smart sports training, and immersive cloud gaming. As per estimates, there are over seven lakh 4G base stations in the country that will need to be augmented and upgraded to 5G. Add to that, a need for an additional few lakh sites due to the densification of network for the next few years. All this requires massive investments. In fact, the government's own national digital communication policy estimates investment requirements in the tune of $100 billion. For this, a financially healthy telecom sector is essential”, claimed Balaji.

It is critical that policymakers look at the economic growth that 5G will drive rather than just the revenue from spectrum sale. The government's key initiatives and programs, whether it's Make In India, the production linked incentives(PLI schemes), Digital India, startup India, a $1 trillion digital economy target - all of these will be driven faster by 5G.

Balaji spoke about the multiplier effect 5G will have on the economy, and the country. “5G will surely have a multiplier effect on economic growth and generate significant employment in the country. As India gets ready for 5G rollout and spectrum auctions, it is imperative that policymakers plan an auction process that benefits 1.3 billion population in the country and gives them operator choice, that it stabilizes the industry so that people who are in the sector: the players, the telcos can invest into 5G networks” said Balaji.

The spectrum auction planning should ensure that all four telecom players get adequate spectrum with significantly lower pricing than the present reserved prices. During the TRAI consultation, the industry proposed no upfront fee, and a few years of moratorium to ensure that all the investment goes into network deployment of 5G.

“It will also be necessary to have spectrum gaps to avoid spectrum concentration in one or two operators along with the option of E and V band for backhaul spectrum. At an industry level, there is a consensus that valuation of the mid band 3300- 3670 megahertz spectrum should be reduced by about 90% or more,” continued Balaji.

“We are hopeful that the industry's requests will be addressed by the regulator, and the government. Since there's been intensive consultation that has taken place in the matter recently. Taking these steps will also enable to create the right digital infrastructure for 5G so that it triggers a multiplier effect on the economy and meet the larger national objectives,” said Balaji.

Startups Innovation Hotbeds

Balaji emphasised the point of the start-up ecosystem being the hotbed of innovation and its  role in the economy’s growth. “The start-up ecosystem is a hotbed of innovation. They have had a significant role to play already in the growth of the economy. And with the government's enabling policy, it will further drive more growth in this vibrant ecosystem with 5G Coming.”

In conclusion, Balaji mentioned about VI’s role with start-ups for Industry 4.0. “Vodafone idea, is working with several innovative start-ups to build up propositions for industry 4.0 Smart Cities and smart citizens. To make Vodafone Idea ready for 5G we are modernizing our network with 5G Ready technologies such as massive MIMO, dynamic spectrum sharing etc. We are deploying 5G radio equipment on both radio and core and with our early moves in open band adoption cloudification of core and with the largest edge cloud deployment in the country. Vodafone idea network is now ready for 5G rollout in the future”.