Revenue Models will be Driven by Connected Devices

Ahead of Voice&Data’s ‘India 5G Evolution—For a Really Smart World’ conference on September 26, 2018, Ashutosh Vasant, Director (POM), RailTel Corporation of India Ltd., talks about 5G readiness, investments, and future 5G revenue streams in an exclusive interview. Excerpts:

Voice&Data: What are your offerings for Indian telcos as they plan to deploy and start test-beds for 5G deployment?

Ashutosh Vasant:   RailTel intends offering the best captive subscriber base of the size of Australia per day in travelling trains with the average captivity of 12 to 14 hrs per day with a mechanism for continuous coverage in trains with shareable infrastructure and fiberized sites to plough BW on demand.

Voice&Data: How ready and steady is the 5G technology for networks as well as for devices and handsets?

Ashutosh Vasant: The biggest user is likely to be machines/devices than handsets. Expect the revenue models to be driven by connected devices/ assets/machines, their effective tracking/ utilization/monetization.

Voice&Data: Is moving to 5G going to be a big ticket investment for the telcos?

Ashutosh Vasant: Definitely yes. Therefore, this investment needs to be supported with commensurate returns.

Voice&Data: What new revenue streams and additional ARPUs do you think 5G will create for telcos?

Ashutosh Vasant: Use cases out of logistics, asset tracking, health, education, retail, asset optimization seem to be potential areas of revenue. 

Voice&Data: Which according to you will be sectors/verticals that will be the early adopters of 5G based solutions from telcos?

Ashutosh Vasant: Logistics, Retail, construction sector, surveillance sector, banking etc. 

Voice&Data: By when do you hope to see the commercial roll-out of 5G in India?

Ashutosh Vasant: We target using the solution in next 12 to 14 months on an optimistic note.