Anticipated regulatory challenges for 5G services

Digital connectivity is the bedrock of India’s digital landscape. With high-speed 5G connecti­vity, the Indian consumer is set to enjoy ever higher speeds, improved experience over previous genera­tions of technologies, and many more innovative offerings.

5G holds promises in areas like robotic surgery, precision agriculture, remote education (metaverse classrooms), health­care, and AR/VR-assisted commerce. MSMEs digitization will accelerate, and telco 5G captive network solutions will help drive factory automation, optimization. 5G will support India’s digital ecosystem and spur economic growth.

This edifice will be built upon the hard network infrastructure, with significant investments poured into by the industry.

Hence, to give the best-in-class service offerings to our customers and betting on India’s digital future, in the recent auctions, Airtel acquired 19,800 MHz spectrum across various bands to secure a pan-India footprint for the next two decades. We now have the widest mobile broadband footprint pan-India, and have already spearheaded 5G trials across various applications, across both urban and rural environment as well as deployment of India’s first captive private network.

We must now ensure 5G’s ubiquitous roll-out faster by removing policy and regulatory hurdles, some of which have been perennial. The government’s seminal reforms last year set the ball rolling by initiating some structural reforms (like ration­alization of bank guarantees, no SUC for newly auctioned spectrum, exclusion of non-telecom revenue from AGR), procedural reforms (like simpli­fication in KYC, SACFA clearance), and address­ing liquidity requirements of telcos (like four-year moratorium in annual payments of AGR dues).

Nevertheless, we still have to work on many areas, specifically challenges to enable 5G, that policy response must address.

Right of way. India has ~35 percent fiber connectivity whereas Korea and China close to 99 percent. The stumbling block here is the costly and time-consuming RoW process that cuts across central, state/municipal jurisdictions. While government has issued RoW rules and brought RoW approvals under PM Gati Shakti plan with launch of Sugam Sanchar portal, challenges like exorbitant charges, permission delays, and fiber cuts remain. States like Maharashtra have taken positive steps in this regard. The cooperation across agencies is a must.

Access to street furniture. 5G means dense networks, and telcos need plentiful access to street furniture like bus stops, street/traffic lights to deploy small cells to cater to massive data traffic. This means coordination across multiple administrative bodies and agencies, and a regulatory framework that facilitates timely, affordable, non-exclusive, and sharable deployment of small cells. Airtel is working to deploy a network of small cells in the Bhopal Smart City project under TRAI’s purview.

Network slicing. 5G network slicing will allow telcos to cater to different users’ differentiated SLA requirements, with each slice an isolated end-to-end network tailored to fulfil these diverse requirements. An enabling framework around network slicing should be brought at the earliest.

Data monetization and privacy. The explosion of data on 5G network offers opportunity to deploy it to serve India’s fast-evolving digital economy. India’s proposed data protection law must take a pragmatic view and balance the need of data monetization opportunities for telcos and Individual privacy.

Satcom. Emerging technologies, like LEO satellite-powered mobile backhaul, will increasingly play a complementary role in bringing high-speed coverage in rural/remote areas. It is important that the spectrum bands like 28GHz are reserved for satellite services, in line with ITU norms.

Overall, 5G will have a profound impact on consu­mers and user industries as India becomes a digital superpower. Airtel is committed to play the leading role in bringing this digital future to India.