Platform role of industry for future has emerged: Dr. RS Sharma, TRAI

The COAI and IMC organized an online panel discussion today on "Digital Networks: The Health and Wealth of the Nation".

The speakers were Dr. R.S. Sharma, Chairman, TRAI, Anshu Prakash, Secretary (T) and Chairperson, DCC, DoT, Ravinder Takkar, MD and CEO, Vodafone Idea Ltd, Ajai Puri, COO, Bharti Airtel Ltd, Sanjay Mashruwala, MD, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd and Dr. Anand Agarwal, Group CEO, STL.

Opening the session, Rajan S. Mathews, DG, COAI, said the theme today is digital networks: health and wealth of nations. What has transpired across our networks over the last 90-odd days is well known. It is 25 years since mobility started. Today, landlines are available on demand. What is landscape experienced so far?

Productivity increased in WFH
Ravinder Takkar, MD and CEO, Vodafone Idea, said that telecom has been a major contributor. FDI has taken place, as have several innovations. Some of those are landmark sharing of passive infrastructure. Even spectrum sharing and trading! There have been infrastructure and FDI investments. It has been a telecom revolution. COAI has done its fair share. Telecom is the second largest investment sector in India, and we have the lowest rate of voice and data in the world.

Today, the global pandemic that we are facing is unparalleled. The response to it is also unparalleled. Demand for services have increased. People movement continued seamlessly. We have all started to WFH. Productivity seems to have increased. This is an unprecedented situation. However, we also continue to provide services. The networks have worked amazingly and efficiently in this pandemic, and WFH has also increased the productivity.

We have to now convert our infrastructure to a platform, enabling the layer for new technologies. If we do our part right, we can get to the goal of a $1 trillion economy by 2025. We have to convert the connectivity layer into a digital ecommerce layer. Technologies such as IoT, M2M, AI/ML, blockchain, etc., are going to change a lot of things. As we contribute to this space, the key point will be collaboration. More collaboration is required with TRAI, DoT and the other government bodies.

We have to convert our infrastructure to a platform and enabling layer for new technologies. This can take us further to newer heights. The telecom industry has been in stress for several years. We need to get out of this. We have the support of the TRAI and DoT. Rollout of the NDCP 2018 and implementing it, is also going to be of great importance.

Platform role of industry
Dr. R.S. Sharma, Chairman, TRAI, said that this pandemic has been very crucial. Telecom industry has played a really wonderful role. It has been at the forefront right through the pandemic. Telecom service providers have been real heroes during the pandemic by providing uninterrupted service.

Networks have been maintained without any interruption. It is a wonderful service to the nation. It is a tremendous amount of suffering we all are also going through. The pandemic has harassed the world. However, the adversity has brought opportunities. The industry needs to change its business model to capitalize on opportunities provided by new technology.

The platform role that the industry will play in the future has emerged. Lot needs to be done and accelerated. The NDPC 2018 needs to be implemented and also accelerated. We need to realize the Digital India dream of the Prime Minister. The pandemic has shown everybody that this is the right way to go, to create a robust, ubiquitous and reliable infrastructure. We have been the rising sector of India. Every other industry's views towards the telecom industry has also changed.

Telecom plays a vital role in implementing technologies like IoT, AI, ML, AR/VR, etc., which will take the nation to new era. These times have shown that all the new technologies have a use case for India. All the technologies are required for India, such as 5G and Industry 4.0!

This approach and attitude have got to be imbibed in our minds, such as Aadhar. Ten years ago, there was lot of talk about biometrics. Today, it has changed! We can't go by examples. We are powerful enough and not inadequate to not do something first. We can show the world the way. We are the second largest telecom network in the world. This is a great opportunity for us. Look at the payment space. We articulated the Digital India policy on July 1, 2015. We had implemented things like DigiLocker, e-signs, e-payments, hospital registration system, etc.

He added: "I see a great future ahead. The journey has been difficult. We can walk in this difficult journey and come out a winner. We have all learnt from you. People are also participating a lot in the virtual meetings. We have tried our best to ensure that there are good policies."

Rajan Matthews said that when the pandemic started, we looked for guidance from DoT and TRAI. We got the help and recalibrated.

Resilient digital networks
Anshu Prakash, Secretary (T) and Chairperson, DCC, DoT, noted that telecom and digital networks have contributed to the health and wealth of the nation. Digital networks in India have remained resilient and proved to be a lifeline in these tough times.

Never before has this sector been so permanent, as of now. The world, and India, could not have dealt with the pandemic without the support of digital networks and the telecom sector. The lockdown started from March 22. Mobile consumption had jumped from 270PB to 303 PB. Now, it has somewhat stabilized. The digital networks and the telecom infrastructure have remained so resilient and reliant.

He said: "Each one of those in the telecom industry, and the workers, are certainly, Covid-19 warriors. We did not face the breakdown a single day. The Minister asked me to ensure that the telecom networks are running. It has been a tremendous job very well done. All of us could not have survived without the digital networks. Digital networks are like the arteries of our body. Networks are the circulatory systems of India, and the world. You have managed such an important system."

Health and wealth are symbiotic with our networks. Digital healthcare contributes to US $1.6 billion to Indian economy currently. At least $7 billion by 2024 can be reached. There is any time, and anywhere health responses system. A person's records can be accessed. We started the m-health concept. It is very successful.  The quality of healthcare is leveraged on the digital system today . The patients' response can also be checked. There has been digitization of data. Multi-stakeholder and collaboration is critical for the industry to take it to greater heights.

However, there are some negative aspects. There is addiction to various apps over the Internet. Youngsters are doing this virtually. There are mental health issues. We need to balance these out. There are multi-stakeholder efforts. The industry, regulator, government, and the consumer have to collaborate. The NDCP 2018 has a roadmap that we can follow. The National Broadband Mission is also very critical for our country. We now have a never-before opportunity before us to catapult ourselves to new heights.

Rajan Mathews agreed that when the pandemic started, there was a lot of traffic. We had to bring down the Internet and TV traffic from HD to SD.

Telecom to forefront
Ajai Puri, COO, Bharti Airtel Ltd, added that the topic is very apt. The ongoing Covid-19 has brought telecom to the forefront. We have kept the lights on, 24x7, while India stayed safe in their homes. We made sure that lives do not get disrupted.  A large part of urban India became rural.

We had to move resources and deployment remotely. Traffic shifted from urban to rural areas during a pandemic, and the industry made sure that the networks stayed awake. That made it all very challenging and exciting. Network and field engineers ensured that the networks were awake all the time. Every new location wanted to be connected, there was rise in rural connections, etc. Everybody has really been helpful in meeting these requirements, even moving from HD to SD.

He said the industry is poised to growth, and will become a central focus of all the new initiatives to take the nation forward. Quite a few things may not go back to the way it was. We will relook our social engagements. We need to create a digital platform for telecom. Possibly, we are more efficient today, thanks to telecom. We have all the support and encouragement from the government. The next five to 10 years will be a period of unprecedented growth. We will do whatever it takes, to take the nation forward in future.

Nation’s circulation system
Sanjay Mashruwala, MD, Reliance Jio Infocomm Ltd, noted that this pandemic has presented a great opportunity. Our PM had spoken about Digital India. We are witnessing everything today. We are using the Aarogya Setu app for contact tracing. 20 years ago, our Chairman had a vision of making phone calls cheaper. Today, it is nearly happening. Mobile data and Internet were considered for the upper classes.

We have tried to bring all that to the masses. We have provided faster data speeds. Telecom has emerged as the nation's circulation system. Telecom has now become more like air. Today, you will feel suffocated if you are not connected. The industry has been successful in bringing data to the masses, and telecom has become an essential utility in the nation currently.

There are no two opinions about digital connectivity. We have been very proactive. At the time of the recent cyclone, we opened up intra-circle networks. The importance of telecom has been realized. Telecom as a utility is as important as water. However, it is not given that much priority. It was realized at the time of the calamity. The efforts required to install and operate a telecom infrastructure during a calamity have emerged.

5G is expected to be very infrastructure-intensive, and the industry will work together to make it a success. Today, there are associated technologies with 5G, such as AI, AR/VR, etc. We need to make the best use of these technologies. All of us have to work together to ensure that we are on the right path. We can achieve much better heights.

Next 25 years about digital!
Dr. Anand Agarwal, Group CEO, STL, stressed that we have discussed 25 years of mobility. At STL, we are discussing 25 years of optical fiber. Telecom has been a great industry. We are using the terms telecom and digital. The last 25 years was about telecom. The next 25 years will be about digital. We are separating that. The only asset was spectrum. There is a clear demarcation between a platform and an infrastructure.

In the digital paradigm, the distinction will become even more apparent. The usage patterns have changed location-ally! It is no longer one-way. There is a large increase in traffic. Apps are getting synchronized. We are collaborating on the cloud in real-time. The shift to digital will be required. It will be closer to the consumer. It will be connectivity and compute, along with storage. There will also be a converged, dis-aggregated network. This provides a great opportunity for India. This requires new kinds of investments. Currently the investment in digital infrastructure in India is 3-4% of the GDP.

Globally, countries who are recognizing the value of digital infrastructure. They have taken the utilitarian route. It will probably have 25-lane highways. This will require a concerted effort between the government and the industry. The US has opened up 1GHz of spectrum on the unlicensed band. It will spur innovation and demand. We have to focus on those kinds of investments.

Can we create unlicensed spectrum? Where will the local build-outs of localized Wi-Fi networks start happening? STL is also focusing on converged architecture. We have created software-hardware stack. We are designing radio units. We are doing own software. Everyone will have a play there. The next 25 years will see strong digitalization.

Long-term strategic thinking
Dr. RS Sharma, TRAI, noted that we have been looking at networks from an integrated perspective. This has been an extremely good model. We now have to move on from this model. Now, we have to connect people anytime, anywhere. We also need to have long-term strategic thinking. These open connectors, where, you will provide the core infrastructure.

He asked the industry to let the apps grow around the infrastructure. Today, we are a platform. Tomorrow, we will be dependent on the strong platform. Things will have to unbundled and explode. We are going to play an extremely important role. Inventions will lead to new use cases. ICT has an extremely bright future.

Anshu Prakash, DoT, added that the wireline infrastructure has to really accelerate and grow. TRAI gave some recommendations in 2015. Even the E and V bands have huge potential.

Airwaves in the E band, which falls between 71-76 GHz and 81-86 Ghz, and V band, between 57-64 GHz, can transmit data with speed of around 1,000 megabit per second. The bands are mostly used as backhaul, which means connecting the core of a telecom network to nodes and then onto towers, to transmit data. There is huge potential to be tapped from these bands. There is huge potential also expected from 5G! We should move towards all this in the future.