5G to drive rapid growth of telecom, data centers in urban areas

There is a new segment in the telecom industry that is celebrating India’s rapidly growing urbanisation – 5G players and back-end service providers.

And this, even though a majority of 5G users in the country, urban or otherwise, are currently using these services for basic voice and data. The optimism lies in 5G’s capability to manage large data-heavy applications.

So, why have large telecom operators, such as Reliance and Airtel, scaled up their 5G network capacity already?

Companies such as Delta Electronics India, which provides power and storage solutions to the telecom industry and accounts for over 60 percent of the telecom power electronics in the country, rapidly scaled up solutions. Why are data centre capacities being scaled up rapidly with many new players setting up shop?

Why 5G Is The Way To Go
In today’s context, with digital governance and smart metering becoming the norm, big data applications are a no-brainer in cities. For big data to function efficiently, 5G is the go-to solution. In smart cities, various applications, such as surveillance, cyber security, broadband applications and payments, UPI, banking and governance initiatives are expected to be part of this growth.

As urban populations have density of usage, these are the applications that would have maximum demand. If a district hospital choses to go for remote surgeries, the data centre has to be literally in its backyard for a remote surgeon to execute the surgery.

With upwards of 5,000-6,000 small towns waiting to be scaled up to cities, there is a huge potential for growth.

Since the launch of 5G in 2022, “approximately 3,15,000 base transceiver stations (BTS) have been installed in the country. About 1,00,000 new telecom sites have come up, approximately 50,000 small cell sites have come up and tens of thousands of kilometres of fibre have been deployed in a few areas in the country.

Lots of H data centres, telecom and data centres have come up to cater to the data needs of these networks. “Approximately 3,00,000 sites would have been upgraded to deal with the 5G extra load,” says Rajesh Kaushal, vice president, Data Electronics India.

What Are The Applications?

In urban India, new applications are emerging in e-education, smart cities, digitisation of society at large, banking and social media applications.

Over-the-Top (OTT) platforms, for instance, are a big data consumer with very high data-centric content. For this to be delivered seamlessly over the networks, telecom and power solutions and services are likely to be in very high demand in the next 4-5 years, even in the smallest of cities. Meticulous planning of cities will help plan this potential.

With both actual savings and brownie points going to cities that adopt sustainable solutions, most telecom operators aspire to become green in terms of their telecom sites and energy resources.

In the past, every site had a diesel generator which they now want to switch to renewable power, like solar. “In 2023, we will have powered at least 25,000 solar sites using renewable solutions,” says Kaushal.

Today, solar solutions are being installed for telecom towers. Since the towers are not designed to hold that kind of weight, the systems have to be installed beside the towers. Most put 5-10 kw of solar power into the tower. That is not sufficient enough to eliminate the need for a diesel genset.

When they install renewable units, the primary source of energy still remains the grid. But they are able to harness solar power in the daytime which helps them to eliminate diesel gensets. That’s where solar integrated telecom solutions come into play.

Urbanisation brings with it density of population to justify investment, enough need for data-heavy applications and an urgency to install these solutions to scale up sustainably. The latest in the sustainability arena that has the potential to grow dramatically is green hydrogen, to process which, a lot of electronics is required.

Renewable Energy Storage Fuels Growth Of Power Electronics
As city after city is being designed with solar and wind capabilities, storage of this renewable energy is also fuelling the growth of power electronics and storage solutions. As the 2030 target for sustainability and meeting ESG goals draws nearer, power electronics players are scaling up research facilities and pumping up to seven percent of revenue to R&D to come up with appropriate solutions for urban India.

If urbanisation is well-planned, the exercise can be structured. That allows all players to plan their growth. Those like Reliance and Airtel have already created capacities. Now, the planning will help them expand their networks. Similarly, power electronics companies like Delta will know how fast to scale from R&D to production and estimate volumes.

The rapid growth of industrial corridors across the country and the concomitant planned development of nodes, which will evolve into focused cities, are already on the anvil and has the potential to bring about this planned growth. That is what has excited data-focused industries as the first of the future growth prospects. Moneycontrol