The Indian government is going to roll out a plan for commercialising 5G in near future. Highlighting its importance, the National Digital Communications Policy 2018, it states that the convergence of revolutionary technologies will accelerate and deepen its digital engagement. 5G networks would improve the accessibility to better services in banking, healthcare, and employment sector.
Understanding 5G
5G is the generation of mobile broadband, which will replace, or augment 4G long-term evolution (LTE) convention, a standard for wireless broadband communication for mobile devices. It offers exponentially faster download and upload speeds. It will deliver multi-Gbps and ultra-low latency, i.e., the time devices with wireless networks take to communicates. As for speed, the peak network data speeds are expected to range from 2 to 20 Gbps, compared to 6-7 Mbps in India with 4G network.
Application of 5G
Some of the applications of 5G are as follows:
(i) 5G will help in creating cyber-physical networks, which not only interconnect people, but also interconnect and control machines, objects, and devices.
(ii) 5G networks will enable the industrial revolution 4.0 due to high-speed, high reliability, and low-latency.
(iii) 5G may prove to be the backbone of emergency technology like Internet of things (IOT), and machine to machine communication and services including driverless vehicles, telesurgery, and real-time analytics. As per estimates of GSMA (Global System for Mobile Association), the internet-enabled devices will triple to 25 billion by 2025.
(iv) The wireless technology will be boosted across completely new sectors from industrial to commercial, educational, healthcare, agricultural, financial, etc.
(v) The primary applications of 5G will be the implementation of a sensor-based network that will allow real-time relay of information.
Cost of 5G and Pricing Issue
As per a report by KPMG, (Klynveld Peat Marwick Goerdeler—a multinational professional services network) released at the Indian Mobile Congress 2019, 5G will cost India at about $1 trillion by 2035. The report says that over 31 per cent of Indian businesses do not even have a roadmap for a digital strategy. As for pricing, the example of Jio suggests that low prices are not sustainable in the long run. Jio was launched introductory offers at Rs 10/gb/month compared to prevailing Rs 200/gb/month but later on prices were increased.
As per a reparate report by telecom gear maker, Ericsson, 5G will cost India above $27 billion by 2026.
There is a correlation between broadband price and adoption levels. As per the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), “A 1 per cent increase in mobile broadband prices results in 0.13 per cent decrease in adoption rates. And a 1 per cent decrease in mobile broadband adoption results in 0.19 per cent decrease in GDP per capita”.
Thus, price increases of 30-35 per cent can lead to a decline in broadband adoption by 3.9-6.5 per cent, leading to a decline of GDP per capita by 0.7-1.2 per cent.
5G smartphone models are likely to cost much more than the most advanced 4G devices. Though there is a growing hand set manufacturing ecosystem in our country that could provide the basis for the domestic production of 5G devices, it would take several years to address some of the technological issues like component manufacturing in line with 4G devices.
Subdued Demand
There is a fear that the auction of the proposed 5G spectrum bands may be subdued, as has been expressed in a letter of July 2019 to TRAI. The department of technology (DOT) unites to the TRAI and seeks TRAI inputs on pricing and process. We must not forget lessons we took in the past 26 years in cases of 2G, 3G, and 4G auctions, which seem to have created a permanent state of crisis in the sector.
What should India Do?
In view of the above situation, India should not hurry in rolling out 5G. Besides spectrum, fundamental change to the core architecture will be required, since the major flow of data transfer using 5G is that it cannot carry data over long distances. A report by Deloitte states that selling out 5G might require an additional investment of $ 60-70 billions.
The another concern is that the majority of 5G technology is owned by a Chinese firm, Huawei and any dependence on China for critical infrastructure could have implications for India’s security.
In such a scenario, India needs to enact a data protection law to keep pace with this change. There is an urgent need to set up universal standards and procedure for seamless integration of services and infrastructure under 5G. There should be a ‘no backdoor’ agreement between the Indian government and telecom companies that is detrimental to the interests of consumers/people. And last but not the least, India should invest in research and development in technologies in this connection as the sooner the technology is indigenised the better it would be for the country.