5G Rollout by August 2022: Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Dr. SP Kochhar, DG, COAI

Talking at the DQDeepTech 2021, Lt. Gen. (Retd.) Dr. SP Kochhar, the Director-General at Cellular Operators Association of India, shed some light on the 5G rollout, and the work ongoing on the same. The COAI DG said that if the government solves all the issues the industry has, India will see a 5G rollout by mid-August 2022.

The Issues with 5G Rollout

Talking about the problems the industry faces right now with the 5G rollout, Dr. Kochhar highlighted the spectrum pricing. He insisted that without an affordable spectrum, rolling out 5G will become tough. "The cost of the spectrum has been rather high, and if the same trend continues, the takers for the 5G spectrum will be quite a few. In 4G there was readymade ROI, in 5G we are still grappling with use cases. If the government doesn't miss the wood from the trees, they will realize that the cumulative revenue that they can get from telcos will be much higher than they can get from the spectrum", he said.

Talking about the government's efforts, he said, "the government is doing a lot of work in identifying, rationalizing, and cleaning up spectrum bands. After that happens, we will get enough spectrum to roll out 5G. Spectrum has to be both access as well as backhaul. What we have been asking is that both the spectrum should come as a bundle. Anyone who gets access spectrum should be allocated a backhaul spectrum of sufficient quantity".

Last month, COAI had written to the government a week ago regarding the 5G spectrum prices. COAI had said that 5G auctions won’t succeed unless the government does not drop spectrum prices by 60-70%. As such, the industry body has consistently been pushing the government to rationalize 5G airwaves pricing.

The Fiberization Problem

Dr. Kochhar also highlighted one of the more critical issues, the densification of fiber. "There will be some instances we won't be able to lay fiber cables. So we will need E-band, also known as fiber-in-the-air. This will help in difficult terrain - in cities where digging is impossible, and in sparsely populated areas where laying fiber is not viable", he noted.

The COAI DG further said, "only about 30% of towers are connected with fiber. With 5G it will become more critical. Hence the connectivity of towers with fiber is essential".

He expressed that while both the TSPs and the Government are keen to lay fiber, there are issues and the government and TSPs are at it. Dr. Kochhar further noted the exorbitant, inconsistent charges local bodies charge while laying fiber; he said that charges varied from Rs. 10,000/meter to Rs. 1 crore/meter. As such, pointing to the urgent need to increase connecting towers with fiber to the base stations, he said, "hopefully, the local bodies see sense in this and will stop charging high rates".

Dr. Kochhar, though, expressed hope that the government and the telcos can achieve a healthy fiberization and densification soon.

Lastly, he talked about small cells, and the need to provide proper coverage in urban areas. "In urban areas, small cells have to come up. It is not only getting spectrum but also populating the area with an adequate amount of small cells to meet the capacity demands", Dr. Kochhar said.

What Will Work for 5G in India?

Dr. Kochhar said that in order for 5G to work, telcos have to focus on the enterprise. He added that the individual users will not feel the need of higher speed with the current usage. "I'll be very candid on this. We don't really have a need for 5G for our personal use. With the speeds that we get with 4G, with proper densification and fiberization, we won't need 5G. This will be the first time machine will be talking with machines. For us, low latencies don't matter, but for machines, it does. Industry automation and Industry 4.0 will be big in the future", he said.

Further, Dr. Kochhar added, "5G will be adequately employed if there are an adequate amount of use cases in M2M communication. In India, Industry 4.0 is coming up, and 5G will be useful. 5G will also enable high-speed communication". He cited an example where 4G would not keep up, but 5G will. "For example, if you are traveling in a bullet train or an airplane, 4G won't be able to give connectivity, while 5G will".

He also said that in the beginning, telcos should roll 5G out "riding" on 4G; or 5G NSA. "The applications across the world may not suit India. In rural areas, 5G will ride over existing 4G networks, in an NSA arrangement. In the ongoing 5G trials, the TSPs have shown coverage of over 20 km, which was thought to be impossible in theory. It is an opportunity to aggregate the number of subscribers in villages. People will have a choice to use either 4G or 5G. In industrial areas, there will be a requirement of low latencies and high capacities. First, the NSA 5G will do the job, but later, the need for 5G SA might arise", Dr. Kochhar said.

"We will see a heterogenous 5G deployment", he added.

5G in August 2022?

Recently, media reports had noted that the government has reached out to telcos to launch 5G networks in a few key cities by as early as Independence Day, 2022. On that discussion, Dr. Kochhar had all but confirmed the some semblance of a deadline was present.

"The variables have to be addressed and optimized before saying when 5G will come out. I think, if the variables are sorted out, we will be able to roll out 5G by August. If they don't, it will take more time. But we have emphasized to the government to address the issues, and they are being addressed quickly. If they get sorted, by mid-August, we will roll out 5G", he said.

The general public sentiment in India has been ambivalent towards 5G. Many have questioned the need for a network upgrade when we had one half a decade ago. What’s more, India’s connectivity issues make it seem that a 5G rollout will only paper over the cracks. However, 5G’s potential makes it an important exercise for the government to facilitate rollout.

One can only hope that the government will sort the issues Dr. Kochhar highlighted at DQ DeepTech, and we can see 5G as soon as August next year.