Bharti Airtel to leverage existing 4G network assets to offer 5G service  

Bharti Airtel has decided to leverage its existing 4G network assets to offer 5G network technology. The firm expects to launch commercial services across the country within four to five months of getting spectrum. It expects the auctions to happen sometime at the end of this year or early next year.

Non-standalone (NSA) 5G is the first or interim stage in the evolution of 5G technology which enables telcos to use their existing 4G core — the nerve centre which controls a network. The technology enables telcos to amortise the investments made in 4G and leverage it across the 5G network, in the process reducing the overall capex requirements. For this, the telco has to make some investment in new radios for using spectrum in a new band such as 3.5 GHZ (a 5G band which will be up for auction). In the next generation 5G technology, telcos will have to replace the 4G core with a new 5G-powered core. That will require substantial additional investment but would enable an array of services which are not possible on NSA networks. The company says that it does not anticipate making any meaningful change in its capex requirements because much of the investments in 4G which have already been made can be leveraged for 5G.

A top executive said Bharti Airtel is ready to switch its network over to 5G ‘any time’ once the spectrum in the 3.5 GHZ band is auctioned.

“We will go for an NSA 5G network and believe that, considering the use case scenario, it will be relevant for the country for the next 10 years, even though standalone 5G might be introduced earlier,” said the executive.

The Bharti Airtel move clearly differs from Reliance Jio which is contemplating a move directly for a standalone 5G network which is the next generation technology.

The Bharti Airtel executive pointed out that the NSA 5G technology also offers low latency (up to 10 milliseconds) to support machine-to-machine functions, smart factories for enterprises, and virtual and augmented reality services for mobile customers.

However, it might not be able to handle remote robotic surgery or autonomous cars which require lower latency and more precision.

The difference with standalone 5G networks is that it offers lower latency which is required for powering many functions such as autonomous cars, robotic surgery, Internet of Things-based critical communications, remote control of critical infrastructure, or massive data analytics.

Many countries and telcos in South Korea, Singapore, the US and China are already in the process of deploying the 5G core by replacing 4G core. Business Standard News