5G Ecosystem: The digital haven of opportunities

Buoyed by exponential data uptake, government’s focus on digitization and increasing trend of technology absorption across industries, India is at the cusp of a digital revolution, which has the potential to transform the socio-economic fabric of the country. This transformation will generate new growth avenues, boost manufacturing and agricultural productivity, and bring transparency to the entire governance ecosystem.

While stakeholders plan for commercial launch of 5G in line with global launch; 5G deployments will not be indifferent to the challenges which the Indian telecom sector faces. Bottlenecks such as low fiber penetration, delicate financial health of most telecom operators, limited equipment manufacturing capabilities, lack of policy enforcement might hamper pan India deployments.

It is in this context, Confederation of Indian Industry taking a lead role, organised the 7th Edition of Digital India Telecom Convergence Summit on Sep 6, 2019 at New Delhi. The summit was well attended by 150 participants from telecom sector.

Lt Gen Rajesh Pant
National Cyber Security Coordinator, PMO,
Government of India

“5G evolution will pave the way into an era of digitisation and transform all areas of business and social landscapes. The government is closely working with industry and will help usher new roadmap of innovation. 5G will support technologies that will totally change life as we know it. With exponential evolution of key technologies such as AI, automation, and data capture, the pace of change will be relentless. As per industry analysts and sources, the 5G project will potentially add USD 666 billion to the Indian economy and enable FDI of USD 273 billion in 10 years and help create 6 crore direct and indirect jobs, that is four times faster than current rate.”

Akhil Gupta
Vice Chairman,
Bharti Group

“Affordability and availability of infrastructure is the need of hour. There is a massive investment required to ensure innovation and development in 5G. Security of technology is one of the major aspects to be taken care of”.

T V Ramachandran
President,
Broadband India Forum

“Expectations are running high and robust investment of industry in 5G is needed. We need to create a transformative plan for the much awaited 5G network in India. There are challenges like financial and recognition of various potential. The industry and government should work together for successful implementation of 5G in India”.

Sathish Gopalaiah
Partner,
Deloitte India

“5G will be a game changer for India with the potential to create significant social and economic impact. As the 5G ecosystem develops in the country, telcos are expected to focus beyond connectivity towards collaboration across the telecom value chain and cross-sector, leading to the creation of new business models and innovation.

As the nation prepares for the launch of 5G, favorable regulatory policies to develop digital infrastructure are expected to drive investments to fuel the growth of 5G ecosystem. With basic connectivity solutions already in store, more advanced capabilities with cloud, mobile edge computing, complex-converged automation, IoT, artificial intelligence (AI), and augmented and virtual reality, are expected to enable industries to drive efficiencies and unlock the full economic potential of 5G. Investments are being made for the impending arrival of 5G as much in the telecom sector as other industries, such as manufacturing, healthcare, government, and retail.

The adoption of these above-mentioned capabilities, along with next-generation hyper-scale solutions, will not only cause a paradigm shift from traditional services to Everything-as-a-Service (XaaS) but also challenge the existing boundaries of Quality of Service (QoS), and personalisation and overall customer experience.

Policy roadmap addressing the spectrum, infrastructural, and business challenges, favourable investment climate, indigenous technology development, and customised use cases in the Indian context will help in the timely adoption of 5G in India, realising the industrial internet and digital aspirations across the connected society.”

P Balaji
Chief Regulatory and Corporate Affairs Officer,
Vodafone Idea Limited

“5G can play a transformational role on delivering on Indian economic and societal priorities – whether it is by way of healthcare solutions, literacy, improvements in the agriculture sector or to revolutionize India’s start-ups and SME sector.”

Vishal Awal
Vice President and Managing Partner-Telecom,
IBM

“IBM, via our open source hybrid multi cloud approach, is actively collaborating and innovating with the fast emerging 5G ecosystem. The magic happens when 5G becomes accessible and affordable to the masses in India and rest of the world. IBM’s approach toward cultivating a true Cloud native network architecture helps 5G operators gain critical business benefits like avoiding vendor lock-in, multi-vendor, multi-cloud manageability, agility, rapid service innovation, compelling cost efficiencies and, most importantly, robust security.”

Gulzar Azad
Country Head- Connectivity,
Google India

“There are three pillars dynamic network, skill development and automation for success of 5G in India. 5G requires to be nurtured and cannot be taken in hyper drive mode. That has unique opportunity and future of telecom connectivity is bright.”

Umang Das
Chairman,
CII Telecom Convergence Summit’19

“5G has the potential to transform our economy. It will enable wireless broadband services to be provided at gigabit speeds, and offer low latency and high reliability to support new types of applications, connecting devices and objects through internet of thing (IoT). It will fuel the development of innovative business models across multiple sectors ranging from transport, health, and manufacturing to logistics, energy, and media and entertainment. It is an opportunity for operators to move beyond connectivity and collaborate across sectors such as finance, transport, retail, and health to deliver new and better services. It is also an opportunity for industry, society, and individuals to advance their digital ambitions, using 5G as a catalyst for innovation. 5G will naturally evolve from existing 4G networks and it will mark an inflection point in the future of communications, bringing instantaneous high-powered connectivity to billions of devices. It will enable machines to communicate without human intervention in an IoT environment capable of driving a near-endless array of services.

Although 5G will engage a new generation of consumers attracted by innovative services and seamless connectivity, new demands will be placed on finite spectrum resources. We will need greater bandwidth to meet the speed and capacity requirements of an increasingly connected society. Operators must be prepared to meet the challenges of a network designed for both people and machines. Governments and service providers must also be ready to meet demands in the future. This transformation is not waiting for the launch of 5G. Many digital changes to our society are already underway, using existing networks. However, what additional 5G brings here is the speed, reliability, and spread they will need to reach their full potential in the future. We know where we want to go and how to get there. However, we cannot take our foot off the pedal. We need the continued commitment of industry players, policy makers, and national authorities to complete this journey.

The success of 5G depends on the adoption of common global standards to ensure that all parties can begin using 5G as a platform for innovation soon at the lowest possible cost. We should work closely with members and players across the ecosystem to define the technologies, identify spectrum bands and develop business models and policy initiatives that will bring 5G to life. Through industry collaboration, we can ensure that 5G becomes an evolutionary change with a revolutionary impact.”